NREL OpenPATH: Track Your Travel, Measure Your Impact

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Open Platform for Agile Trip Heuristics (NREL OpenPATH, https://nrel.gov/openpath) is a powerful tool for tracking your transportation choices and understanding their environmental impact. Whether you travel by car, bus, bike, or on foot, OpenPATH measures energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with your trips.

This app empowers individuals and communities to analyze travel patterns, explore more sustainable alternatives, and assess the results. This data is invaluable for shaping effective transportation policies and planning more sustainable, accessible cities.

OpenPATH provides personalized feedback on your travel choices, while also offering aggregated, anonymized community-level data through a public dashboard. This dashboard displays mode share, trip frequency, and overall carbon footprint.

Built on a smartphone app, server, and automated data processing, OpenPATH's open-source design ensures transparent data handling and allows customization for specific research projects or programs.

Data privacy is paramount. The app initially collects no data. Participation requires consent after joining a study or program via link or QR code. Individuals interested in tracking their personal carbon footprint can join the NREL open-access study; their data may be used as a control group in partner studies.

At its heart, OpenPATH functions as an automated travel diary, leveraging background location and accelerometer data. Users can add descriptive details as needed by program administrators or researchers.

To conserve battery life, OpenPATH automatically disables GPS when stationary. Even with active location tracking, the app only consumes approximately 5% battery power for up to three hours of daily travel.

What's New in Version 1.9.1 (Last Updated Oct 15, 2024)

• Push notifications are now optional, catering to programs that don't require them.