Bike Lane Hero

(Photo by Kande Bonfim on Unsplash)

Deprecation Notice: This project has been discontinued. Read on for details.

Bike Lane Hero is an Android application the mission of which is simple: the promotion of cycling through gamification.

Users record the routes they take by bicycle and can conquer neighbourhoods by riding through them more often than other players. Besides winning (and loosing) neighbourhoods users can also check how they are ranking in the global leaderboard in regards to distance and duration.

Through subscriptions users are able to unlock additional features, but the core gamification features are free for everyone who loves cycling. The subscriptions are necessary to cover server and service costs and keep the app ad-free. I deliberately decided against including ads into the app for monetization, because I see it like WhatsApp did in 2012: Advertising is an insult to our intelligence and it interrupts our train of thought. In my opinion, optional subscriptions are the best way to cover operating costs.

The app was inspired by „Rider State“, an application that unfortunately was discontinued in 2014. Sadly, Bike Lane Hero met the same fate in 2021 after being in use by beta testers for over two years.