# NLR OpenPATH

> Track travel modes, energy use, and carbon footprint for individual and community sustainability. (iPhone/iPad app by National Renewable Energy Laboratory.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nlr-openpath/id1628058068 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [National Renewable Energy Laboratory](https://appshunter.io/developer/718577950)
- Category: Health & Fitness, Navigation
- Price: Free
- Rating: 2.69/5 from 13 App Store ratings · 3 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 74 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2022-06-16
- Data updated: 2026-06-04
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nlr-openpath/id1628058068/reviews.md

## What is NLR OpenPATH?

The National Laboratory of the Rockies' Open Platform for Agile Trip Heuristics (NLR OpenPATH) enables people to track their travel modes—car, bus, bike, walking, etc.—and measure their associated energy use and carbon footprint.  

The app empowers communities to understand their travel mode choices and patterns, experiment with options to make them more sustainable, and evaluate the results. Such results can inform effective transportation policy and planning and be used to build more sustainable and accessible cities. 

NLR OpenPATH informs individual users about the impact of their choices, and also makes aggregated, community-level data on mode shares, trip frequencies, and carbon footprints available via a public dashboard.  

NLR OpenPATH incorporates continuous data collection and analysis via a smart phone app backed by a server and automated data processing. Its open nature enables transparent data collection and analysis, while allowing it to be configured for individual programs or studies.  

On first install, the app does not collect or transmit data. Once you click the link or scan the QR code to join a given study or program, you will be asked to consent to data collection and storage before the app begins functioning. If you are not part of a partner community or program but are simply interested in quantifying your individual carbon footprint, you can join the NLR-run open-access study. In the aggregate, your data might be used as the control for experiments run by our partners.  

At its core, the app represents an automatically sensed travel diary, constructed from background sensed location and accelerometer data. You can annotate the diary with semantic labels as requested by a given program administrator or researcher.  

Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Therefore, the app automatically turns off the GPS if you are not moving. This significantly reduces the battery drain caused by location tracking. The app results in ~ 5% battery drain for up to 3 hours of travel per day.

## Key features

- Track various travel modes
- Measure energy consumption
- Calculate carbon footprint
- Analyze travel patterns
- Contribute to community data
- Smart background data collection
- Annotate travel diary

## Recent user reviews (3 of 3)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nlr-openpath/id1628058068/reviews.md

### 1/5 — They don’t honor the promise

*2025-12-05*

Gave my location data for 8 months. Emailed them to figure out any updates. Told me study closed. Do not share data with UW.

### 1/5 — Epic fail

*2025-07-14*

I am required to use this as part of an e-bike voucher program. The app fails in a fundamental way: it does not recognize multi-purpose trips. All trip types are radio buttons, not checkboxes—something that could be very easily fixed. If you, say, walk to the farmer’s market, the trip cannot be for exercise, shopping, and socializing all at the same time. This represents a complete misunderstanding of how people travel. This aside, the trip recognition function is really quite bad. I went to a festival recently and walked quite a bit. Each festival walking segment was classified as a separate trip, so I had to label like 10 different trips! The auto-classification is also garbage, labeling some walking trips as e-bike. Like, I couldn’t e-bike that slow if I tried! For an app developed by so-called experts, this all is quite befuddling, as they could design this in a way that helps them collect valuable/useful data, but they choose not to.

### 1/5 — Annoying notifications and draining battery

*2025-04-28*

Doesn’t provide any good information. Just tracks your location.  Delete delete delete.

## Frequently asked questions about NLR OpenPATH

### What is NLR OpenPATH?

NLR OpenPATH is a mobile application designed to track your travel modes, such as car, bus, or walking, and measure the associated energy use and carbon footprint. It aims to help individuals and communities understand and improve their travel habits for greater sustainability.

### How does NLR OpenPATH track my travel?

The app functions as an automatically sensed travel diary, using background location and accelerometer data to construct your trip history. You can also manually annotate your diary with semantic labels as requested by study administrators.

### Does NLR OpenPATH collect data immediately?

No, on first install, the app does not collect or transmit any data. Data collection begins only after you consent to join a specific study or program by clicking a link or scanning a QR code.

### How does NLR OpenPATH affect battery life?

Continued use of GPS can decrease battery life. However, the app automatically turns off GPS when you are not moving to significantly reduce battery drain. It results in approximately 5% battery drain for up to 3 hours of travel per day.

### Is NLR OpenPATH available on Android devices?

Based on the provided data, NLR OpenPATH is currently supported on iPhone and iPod devices. Information regarding Android compatibility is not available in this data.

### What is the user rating for NLR OpenPATH?

NLR OpenPATH has a user rating of 2.5 stars based on 12 ratings. This suggests that while some users find value in the app, there may be areas for improvement based on user feedback.

### How often is NLR OpenPATH updated?

The latest version of NLR OpenPATH is 2.0.8, which was last updated on March 7, 2026. This indicates a recent update, suggesting ongoing development and maintenance for the application.

### Can I use NLR OpenPATH without joining a study?

Yes, if you are not part of a partner community or program but are interested in quantifying your individual carbon footprint, you can join the NLR-run open-access study. Your aggregated data may be used as a control for experiments.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.1.3 — 2026-04-06

- Add functionality to automatically update deployment config
- Persist UI state in background for 5 minutes
- Bug fixes

### 2.0.8 — 2026-03-07

- Improve the ways we collect user feedback
- Update NLR organization name
- Upgrade dependencies

### 2.0.4 — 2025-11-25

- refactor Profile screen
- optimize user profile fetch and code organization
- upgrade vulnerable packages

### 2.0.2 — 2025-08-06

- Support for deployment-specific sensor configs
- Aggregate metrics format changes
- Support disabling dashboard on a per-deployment basis

### 2.0.0 — 2025-03-31

- Support multiple modes of interest
- Turn off BLE scanning for non-fleet deployments

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## More apps by National Renewable Energy Laboratory

- [Alternative Fueling Stations](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/alternative-fueling-stations/id718577947)

All apps by National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://appshunter.io/developer/718577950

## Related topics

[nrel openpath](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/nrel-openpath) · [nlr openpath](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/nlr-openpath) · [national renewable energy laboratory](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/national-renewable-energy-laboratory) · [openpath](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/openpath) · [openpaths](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/openpaths) · [openpath app](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/openpath-app)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-04.*