Whether I bike, scoot, or take transit, I’m pretty consistent in tracking my ride. On OC Transpo, I use the GO function to track the routes I take and some basic data including time spent walking, riding and waiting, in addition to mapping, speed and distance. On my scooter, I get even more data when using the Apollo app adding motor and controller temps, as well as battery performance. On my bike, Strava provides all of that location data, as well. My DJI drone creates a .gpx file that includes flight-specific data like altitude, climb rates and the like.

In each app, there’s a unique feature specific to each mode that’s compelling enough for me to use each instead of a generic .gps app. My go-to, GPS Tracks, won’t capture my scooters regenerative braking, or battery use, or which gear I’m in. It doesn’t capture Strava fly-bys I frequently isolate in my ride videos or make an online archive of my trips available automatically. When using Transit, I’m climbing the leaderboard and getting route information GPS Tracks simply won’t capture.

The difference between Strava’s, DJI’s and GPS Tracks’ files, though, and those of Transit and Apollo, is that I can’t export the data from the latter two. That’s a real constraint on how all those travel apps could be mashed up.

Here’s a peek the (I think) very cool data that’s generated by those apps.

I’ve posted my GPS Tracks and Strava screenshots previously, so won’t put those here. But of note is that some of the data is very much in common: speed and .gps route data in particular. If those were all in .gpx files, I could do some interesting comparisons of heat maps. On my scooter, I could use my trusty Telemetry Overlay to overlay the motor and power over camera footage. But because the .gps and other telemetry is locked into proprietary apps, there’s a limit to what I can do.

In 2024 I manually tracked every trip I took out of the house with entries in a spreadsheet. I’d love to recreate that exercise but with .gps data. The Transit and Apollo apps make that appear tantalizingly close, but those companies need make the files available.

Apollo and Transit – free the .gpx!