NREL OpenPATH

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Open Platform for Agile Trip Heuristics (NREL OpenPATH, https://nrel.gov/openpath) is a revolutionary tool designed to help individuals track their travel modes, including car, bus, bike, and walking, and measure their energy consumption and carbon footprint. By using this app, users gain valuable insights into their daily travel habits and the environmental impact of their choices.

NREL OpenPATH empowers communities to understand their travel patterns, experiment with sustainable options, and evaluate the outcomes. This data-driven approach can significantly influence transportation policies and urban planning, paving the way for more sustainable and accessible cities. The app not only provides personalized feedback to individual users but also aggregates community-level data on mode shares, trip frequencies, and carbon footprints, which is accessible via a public dashboard.

The functionality of NREL OpenPATH is supported by continuous data collection and analysis through a smartphone app, which is backed by a server and automated data processing. Its open-source nature ensures transparent data handling and allows for customization to fit specific programs or studies. Upon installation, the app does not immediately collect or transmit data. Users must actively join a study or program by clicking a link or scanning a QR code and consent to data collection before the app starts tracking. For those not part of a partner community but interested in tracking their personal carbon footprint, joining the NREL-run open-access study is an option, where individual data might be used as a control for partner experiments.

At its core, NREL OpenPATH functions as an automatically sensed travel diary, utilizing background location and accelerometer data. Users have the ability to add semantic labels to their travel logs as requested by program administrators or researchers, enhancing the data's utility. It's important to note that continuous use of GPS in the background can significantly drain battery life. To mitigate this, the app automatically deactivates GPS when the user is stationary, resulting in approximately a 5% battery drain for up to 3 hours of daily travel.

What's New in the Latest Version 1.9.1

Last updated on Oct 15, 2024

- Made push notifications optional to cater to programs that do not require them.