What to know
- Friends Aniket Patel and Matt Collyer are gaining attention for Go Sunday Drive, a platform curating scenic driving routes across Ontario and British Columbia, inspired by Patel’s pandemic-era drives for mental health.
- The app and website map out routes with stops like cafes, trails, and viewpoints, while also providing road condition details to ensure safe driving for different vehicles.
- Popular among sports car enthusiasts, the initiative promotes slow, scenic, and mindful driving, aiming to shift stereotypes and highlight driving as a relaxing, positive experience rather than reckless behaviour.
A pair of friends are going viral for curating scenic drives around Ontario and British Columbia, while also changing the negative narrative toward sports car enthusiasts.
Aniket Patel first started compiling routes around Ontario near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2022. What started as something for him to remember and explore, became something for everyone.
“Mental health for plenty of people, especially myself, was pretty rough back then… I started going on really long drives, sometimes three, four or five hours long during that time, stopping to take photos, trying to get a coffee and explore whatever I can,” Patel told Now Toronto.
Patel says eventually he began building a list of scenic places that he would often visit. Soon, he was inspired to create an app and website beneficial for anyone looking to take a drive that doesn’t just go down a straight path or into a town or city.
Go Sunday Drive allows users to browse through different routes mapped out in multiple areas. Along the route, it pinpoints different areas to check out, including cafes, trails and picturesque views.
Additionally, the app looks at road conditions, giving full disclosure on whether certain cars and vehicles are able to take that route without risk of damage or accidents.
Patel said the Go Sunday Drive initiative gained traction with car enthusiasts, like Matt Collyer, who recently took over the company as a new operator.
Collyer said the reaction from people using their routes and website has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The amount of people that are now interacting with the app for the first time is really incredible,” Collyer explained.
Patel was also able to recruit a friend in British Columbia, named Kylie, who also gets out to drive different routes in the western province. Collyer said the reaction has caused many users to ask the pair if they would ever map out routes closer to more remote areas, and closer to other drivers. Something, they said they hope to consider in the future when they’re able.
Collyer and Patel added Go Sunday Drive has become particularly popular with drivers who own sports cars. Reactions from these drivers have been positive, and Collyer said they haven’t received too many negative reviews for their tried-and-trued routes.
“You’ll get the one or two people who live on a back road that feel that because we’re sharing these routes, it’s going to turn into a race track, but then we never hear from them again, because people don’t do that. It’s just their initial reaction,” Collyer explained.
He added that Go Sunday Drive emphasizes a slow and steady approach to the drive.
“When we say that someone is a car person. We don’t want people to quickly assume that, you know, we’re speeding through their neighbourhoods, or we’re revving our engines in the middle of the night,” Patel also explained. “It’s never been the intention to build a hooliganism sort of app, but instead inspire people to improve their own mental health.”
Collyer agreed, saying he personally drives to admire the view.
“I have far more fun when I go a little bit slow and I take in the scenery. A lot of our routes are so stunning, you’ll be driving past a waterfall or on the side of a hill, and if you’re doing that over the speed limit, you’re not able to take in the scenery and have that meditative effect,” he explained.
Go Sunday Drive is a free database for drivers to check out, something both Patel and Collyer agree will be the case “forever.”
“We’re very fortunate to have our day jobs and have the flexibility to do this,” Patel explained. “Even if it just stayed the way it is, it didn’t grow anymore, and if our current 35,000 or so users just kept using it, we can still die happy.”
