5 ms·

Show HN: Vado – A platform to encourage people to cycle and walk more

41 points by elbarbabrb 5y ago

Gys 5y ago
How about also promoting 'talking'? Get extra points for doing the activity with others? You can make more difference in this world by bringing people together while being active. Maybe by bringing people together based on the similar routes. We need to get more out of our bubble ;-)
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  Hey Gys thanks, this is definitely a good idea, we'll think about implementing something in this direction in the future
hmr 5y ago
How can I trust this website which has my location all the time?
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  Hi hmr, true but like every other website/app that want to measure where you're going, think Strava, Komoot or any fitness app
elbarbabrb 5y ago
Hey there, we’re a collective of italian bike-enthusiast people who are trying to sensibilize other people to avoid car usage. Check out this new platform we just launched: https://vado.cc https://vado.cc It’s a sort of game where you can win a prize just doing miles commuting, riding by walking, cycling or with whatever vehicle which is not fossil fuel powered (we have a lot of checks in place so cheating by using a car or a motorbike) is impossible While we're in beta races are free to partecipate! after they're gonna be really cheap
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  Always Be Coffeeneuring https://chasingmailboxes.com/category/coffeeneuring/always-be-coffeeneuring-club/ https://chasingmailboxes.com/category/coffeeneuring/always-b...
- acomjean 5y ago
  >we have a lot of checks in place so cheating by using a car or a motorbike I used strava to track my rides a few years ago. After riding home I got in my car and did a errand. Forgot to turn the app off and it logged my driving like I was riding, though to be fair driving in my city isn’t much faster than biking….)
  - mercurywells 5y ago
    After the activity is saved, you can edit and crop the activity to trim off the driving portion.
  - elbarbabrb 5y ago
    yeah Strava doesn't have a check in place for this, in fact there are a lot of unreal stats in there, we check the effective average speed of your commuting, and the 1st race has a avg speed limit of < 18km/h so unless you want to go around in your car at that avg speed without causing accidents or be yelled every 30 seconds is pretty much not-usable with a car.
    - ferruck 5y ago
      I'm usually commuting at around 23 to 25 km/h average, so you're telling me I'm not going by bike? ;-)
      - elbarbabrb 5y ago
        nope, we're just saying that to compete for the 1st race the avg. speed needs to be under 18 km/h, maybe the 2nd race will be just commutings > 25km/h ;)
    - 5y ago
warxmike 5y ago
Basatissimi
acomjean 5y ago
I like this. There were a couple of years I joined the “mass commutes bike week challenge”. It involved joining a team ( my team was my university) and logging distance ridden on every day. It had your distance and a leader board. Not super complex but it worked. It did encourage me to ride more. http://www.masscommute.com/news/2016/6/28/2016-masscommute-bicycle-challenge-breaks-the-record.html http://www.masscommute.com/news/2016/6/28/2016-masscommute-b... Oddly a lot of the record of these isn’t on the internet anymore. They seem to have switched to a new platform which I haven’t tried. https://www.lovetoride.net/usa?locale=en-US https://www.lovetoride.net/usa?locale=en-US I like the simplicity of VADO and will try it out.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  hey acomjean, thanks for your message, yeah we tried to keep it super simple and somehow ignorant but not in a bad way :) it's still in the very early days so every feedback is super appreciated!
- wjnc 5y ago
  My workplace had this last spring. Turns out if you let (Dutch) cycling enthusiasts work out during the workday they will go for 200km rides. Weekly. That's 6 hours of cycling. I was amazed that people took that liberty but the big boss took it in good cheers. No further experimentation with working out on the job though.
k_ 5y ago
I like this :) 18km/h is a little low imo (looking at my strava stats I'm usually just over 20km/h on my commute rides) but it's a good idea to add a limit Couple remarks on the website itself: - enable SSR if possible, having to enable javascript for a static website is annoying - I guess you created this website on a mac? Be careful with scrollbars when you do; MacOS hides scrollbar but other OS don't and you easily end up with multiple useless scrollbars (like here with 3 unneeded vertical scrollbars)
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  hey, thanks, good feedback, yes 18km/h is quite slow but we aimed to a broader range of people for this 1st race, even people walking can do it. And yes I'm already aware about the scrollbar thing, i'll fix it shortly
  - k_ 5y ago
    Yeah it does make sense :) Did you think about a race where you also _lose_ "distance points" when you travel faster than some speed? Like a malus for car use, great malus for plane, etc. Would be best if it could refrain from removing points when using public transport (which could be somewhat doable giving a lot of public transport routes are public to some extent?)
    - elbarbabrb 5y ago
      cool, a malus when you try to "cheat" would be a nice addition for sure, also considering public transport, but that looks harder to implement
andijcr 5y ago
email confirmation seems a bit broken
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  also check spam folders, some mail servers flag our domain as spam
  - andijcr 5y ago
    yes, the link was mangled by gmail's spam protection. after marking it as non-spam it worked
mathrall 5y ago
This is great, after cycling and running then you can have a quick break to watch Netflix
mywacaday 5y ago
I'm all for minamilism and get why it is the way it but this website does not encourage me to sign up. Most users will leave before they understand what to do and fewer still know what a PWA is.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  Hi, thanks for your feedback, do you have suggestions on how to improve the sign up process? and for now the PWA is the faster/simpler/cost effective way to have this kind of platform up and running, and it's literally 2 taps on every phone to install it, so it's not that difficult, my 2 cents
darod 5y ago
"VADO PRINCIPLES THE INTERNET IS A JUNKYARD This website emits 7 times less CO2 than global websites average. WE HATE COOKIES, ANALYTICS, YOU NAME IT We don't use cookies, we don't track anything you do on this site except for your location to know how far/fast you're going." It's interesting that after that diatribe and encouraging you to get off your butt to walk/cycle that the prize is a 50€/$ gift credit on NETFLIX.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  I get your point, we could have offered a 50€ on for example a pair of cycling gloves, but probably shipping them to your door will emit the same amount of CO2 of a week of you streaming on Netflix. Btw Netflix was the 1st thing that came in mind, suggestions on something digital which is more sustainable or simply better are welcome.
  - darod 5y ago
    grocery gift card?
    - elbarbabrb 5y ago
      true, but which one? we can't know before who will win, thanks for the idea btw
jelicicm 5y ago
Hey, nice idea, I downloaded the app yesterday and run into some problems. 1) When leaving the office I have around 3.5 km to walk to my home, so I wanted to log it. The app (Android 10 device) didn't start tracking - I'll give this to my inexperience and the fact I didn't pay attention. This morning, when leaving home for work, I made sure it started tracking, but when I got to the office, I pull my phone out of the pocket, check the app and see its logged only about 0.3 km? Wait a few moments to give it a chance to update - nothing changes. I say OK, let's at least log this - click stop, and now I don't see any page where I can see my current (total) distance. Anyhow, not really interested in Netflix subscription - just liked the idea and decided to participate. Good luck with your project.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  Hey jelicicm, thanks for your feedback,it's very useful. We've just released this beta version so probably some bug is still present. Did you received any message when you stopped tracking? Cause I can't see any activity logged this morning so something has gone wrong for sure. thanks!
doubleorseven 5y ago
Seems like someone took over their email account. Got some real wierd looking urls.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  What url have you received? no strange activity detected on our end

41 points by elbarbabrb 5y ago

Gys 5y ago

How about also promoting 'talking'? Get extra points for doing the activity with others? You can make more difference in this world by bringing people together while being active. Maybe by bringing people together based on the similar routes. We need to get more out of our bubble ;-)

elbarbabrb 5y ago
Hey Gys thanks, this is definitely a good idea, we'll think about implementing something in this direction in the future

hmr 5y ago

How can I trust this website which has my location all the time?

elbarbabrb 5y ago
Hi hmr, true but like every other website/app that want to measure where you're going, think Strava, Komoot or any fitness app

elbarbabrb 5y ago

Hey there, we’re a collective of italian bike-enthusiast people who are trying to sensibilize other people to avoid car usage. Check out this new platform we just launched: https://vado.cc https://vado.cc It’s a sort of game where you can win a prize just doing miles commuting, riding by walking, cycling or with whatever vehicle which is not fossil fuel powered (we have a lot of checks in place so cheating by using a car or a motorbike) is impossible While we're in beta races are free to partecipate! after they're gonna be really cheap

hprotagonist 5y ago
Always Be Coffeeneuring https://chasingmailboxes.com/category/coffeeneuring/always-be-coffeeneuring-club/ https://chasingmailboxes.com/category/coffeeneuring/always-b...
acomjean 5y ago
>we have a lot of checks in place so cheating by using a car or a motorbike I used strava to track my rides a few years ago. After riding home I got in my car and did a errand. Forgot to turn the app off and it logged my driving like I was riding, though to be fair driving in my city isn’t much faster than biking….)
- mercurywells 5y ago
  After the activity is saved, you can edit and crop the activity to trim off the driving portion.
- elbarbabrb 5y ago
  yeah Strava doesn't have a check in place for this, in fact there are a lot of unreal stats in there, we check the effective average speed of your commuting, and the 1st race has a avg speed limit of < 18km/h so unless you want to go around in your car at that avg speed without causing accidents or be yelled every 30 seconds is pretty much not-usable with a car.
  - ferruck 5y ago
    I'm usually commuting at around 23 to 25 km/h average, so you're telling me I'm not going by bike? ;-)
    - elbarbabrb 5y ago
      nope, we're just saying that to compete for the 1st race the avg. speed needs to be under 18 km/h, maybe the 2nd race will be just commutings > 25km/h ;)
  - 5y ago

warxmike 5y ago

Basatissimi

acomjean 5y ago

I like this. There were a couple of years I joined the “mass commutes bike week challenge”. It involved joining a team ( my team was my university) and logging distance ridden on every day. It had your distance and a leader board. Not super complex but it worked. It did encourage me to ride more. http://www.masscommute.com/news/2016/6/28/2016-masscommute-bicycle-challenge-breaks-the-record.html http://www.masscommute.com/news/2016/6/28/2016-masscommute-b... Oddly a lot of the record of these isn’t on the internet anymore. They seem to have switched to a new platform which I haven’t tried. https://www.lovetoride.net/usa?locale=en-US https://www.lovetoride.net/usa?locale=en-US I like the simplicity of VADO and will try it out.

elbarbabrb 5y ago
hey acomjean, thanks for your message, yeah we tried to keep it super simple and somehow ignorant but not in a bad way :) it's still in the very early days so every feedback is super appreciated!
wjnc 5y ago
My workplace had this last spring. Turns out if you let (Dutch) cycling enthusiasts work out during the workday they will go for 200km rides. Weekly. That's 6 hours of cycling. I was amazed that people took that liberty but the big boss took it in good cheers. No further experimentation with working out on the job though.

k_ 5y ago

I like this :) 18km/h is a little low imo (looking at my strava stats I'm usually just over 20km/h on my commute rides) but it's a good idea to add a limit Couple remarks on the website itself: - enable SSR if possible, having to enable javascript for a static website is annoying - I guess you created this website on a mac? Be careful with scrollbars when you do; MacOS hides scrollbar but other OS don't and you easily end up with multiple useless scrollbars (like here with 3 unneeded vertical scrollbars)

elbarbabrb 5y ago
hey, thanks, good feedback, yes 18km/h is quite slow but we aimed to a broader range of people for this 1st race, even people walking can do it. And yes I'm already aware about the scrollbar thing, i'll fix it shortly
- k_ 5y ago
  Yeah it does make sense :) Did you think about a race where you also _lose_ "distance points" when you travel faster than some speed? Like a malus for car use, great malus for plane, etc. Would be best if it could refrain from removing points when using public transport (which could be somewhat doable giving a lot of public transport routes are public to some extent?)
  - elbarbabrb 5y ago
    cool, a malus when you try to "cheat" would be a nice addition for sure, also considering public transport, but that looks harder to implement

andijcr 5y ago

email confirmation seems a bit broken

elbarbabrb 5y ago
also check spam folders, some mail servers flag our domain as spam
- andijcr 5y ago
  yes, the link was mangled by gmail's spam protection. after marking it as non-spam it worked

mathrall 5y ago

This is great, after cycling and running then you can have a quick break to watch Netflix

mywacaday 5y ago

I'm all for minamilism and get why it is the way it but this website does not encourage me to sign up. Most users will leave before they understand what to do and fewer still know what a PWA is.

elbarbabrb 5y ago
Hi, thanks for your feedback, do you have suggestions on how to improve the sign up process? and for now the PWA is the faster/simpler/cost effective way to have this kind of platform up and running, and it's literally 2 taps on every phone to install it, so it's not that difficult, my 2 cents

darod 5y ago

"VADO PRINCIPLES THE INTERNET IS A JUNKYARD This website emits 7 times less CO2 than global websites average. WE HATE COOKIES, ANALYTICS, YOU NAME IT We don't use cookies, we don't track anything you do on this site except for your location to know how far/fast you're going." It's interesting that after that diatribe and encouraging you to get off your butt to walk/cycle that the prize is a 50€/$ gift credit on NETFLIX.

elbarbabrb 5y ago
I get your point, we could have offered a 50€ on for example a pair of cycling gloves, but probably shipping them to your door will emit the same amount of CO2 of a week of you streaming on Netflix. Btw Netflix was the 1st thing that came in mind, suggestions on something digital which is more sustainable or simply better are welcome.
- darod 5y ago
  grocery gift card?
  - elbarbabrb 5y ago
    true, but which one? we can't know before who will win, thanks for the idea btw

jelicicm 5y ago

Hey, nice idea, I downloaded the app yesterday and run into some problems. 1) When leaving the office I have around 3.5 km to walk to my home, so I wanted to log it. The app (Android 10 device) didn't start tracking - I'll give this to my inexperience and the fact I didn't pay attention. This morning, when leaving home for work, I made sure it started tracking, but when I got to the office, I pull my phone out of the pocket, check the app and see its logged only about 0.3 km? Wait a few moments to give it a chance to update - nothing changes. I say OK, let's at least log this - click stop, and now I don't see any page where I can see my current (total) distance. Anyhow, not really interested in Netflix subscription - just liked the idea and decided to participate. Good luck with your project.

elbarbabrb 5y ago
Hey jelicicm, thanks for your feedback,it's very useful. We've just released this beta version so probably some bug is still present. Did you received any message when you stopped tracking? Cause I can't see any activity logged this morning so something has gone wrong for sure. thanks!

doubleorseven 5y ago

Seems like someone took over their email account. Got some real wierd looking urls.

elbarbabrb 5y ago
What url have you received? no strange activity detected on our end