"[Idea] How to Fix the Game for Runners and Bikers"

#PokemonGO: I frequently go for 10 mile (16km) runs, and yet I haven't brought my phone with me since the halloween quadruple buddy distance event. Why? The game tracks so little distance it's not even worth the slight annoyance of having my phone bounce in my pocket, with the speed cap conveniently set just below a runner's speed. The fix:• Raise the speed cap to 25mph (40km/h). Or only to 15mph (24km/h) to make the game work with running but not biking. The current cap is 6.5mph (10.5km/h), and /u/Glmnet1 could only receive distance up to a walk/jog of 3.7mph due to GPS error reporting faster speeds (6km/h, see http://ift.tt/2vr6Jdm). So the cap should be at least 1.8mph more than a runner/biker's actual speed, depending on the way GPS error works. I run at ~8mph, and more competitive runners can sustain 12mph for an extended time. Capping at 15mph should give a safe buffer to make sure their distance is tracked. Strong bikers can sustain 20mph, hence my initial prescription. At the same time, drivers would NOT get very much distance. Outside the city, the lowest reasonable speed to drive is 25mph. Of course, if no one else is on the road, they can creep as slowly as they need to, but they already can do that now.• Award proportionally less distance at higher speeds, i.e. an elite biker isn't hatching many times more eggs than you are! Nor are spoofers! The maximum eggs hatched / buddy candy per hour remains the same as now. It was previously suggested to raise egg/buddy distances in tandem with raising the speed cap, but it was rightly pointed out that this would screw over the less athletic, including the majority of players (see http://ift.tt/2wQsyRj). The proportionality rule allows allows the game to stop screwing over runners and bikers without transferring their suffering to walkers.• EDIT: If you're concerned about bikers and drivers looking at their phones, add a Bike Mode option that hides everything on-screen, but further raises the speed cap from 15mph (24km/h) to 25mph (40km/h), and alerts you when an egg hatches. You can't see pokestops or spawns or even look in your bag in this mode, only press a button to toggle the mode back off. Or don't add a bike mode, and just lower the speed cap on pokestops/spawns universally. They are the functionality that is dangerous while driving, and yet their speed cap is over twice the speed cap for buddies/eggs, which don't tempt you to look at the screen! Personally, I would even be satisfied with keeping the current speed cap and having a Run Mode raise the cap to 12mph, but this wouldn't help bikers or competitive runners, and it really is safe to look at your phone while running. Thank you to the commenters who brought up this idea. It also has previously been suggested to require the detection of steps by pedometer/accelerometer in tandem with lifting the speed cap. This would result in the headline "Niantic Punishes Wheelchairbound Players as Cheaters" if steps have to be detected at low speeds as well. If they only have to be detected at high speeds, legit bikers will still receive no distance, while drivers and spoofers can work around it by building a simple apparatus to lift their phone up and down. EDIT: I previously recommended higher speeds, based on a current speed cap of 11mph from this source, but it was pointed out there is also a cap on distance that is equivalent to 6.5mph (10.5km/h) over any significant distance, given constant speed. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2vrL053