A simple python script to merge GPX files within a target directory

Sometimes we would like to merge all the tracks, track segments and track points across different GPS Exchange Format (GPX) files. You may want to do this to consolidate GPS data generated by your GPS devices. Merging all your GPX files into a single one allows you to easily visualize the spatial information as one single map layer on a mapping software.

Note that this algorithm

• Preserves tracks. i.e. it does not merge different tracks under one
• Filters off track points which are not timestamped
• Orders track points chronologically under their track segment

Here's an example to run the script with all available options

python GPXMerge.py -i ./target -o target_merged.gpx -s 30

The reason to have a skip interval is to provide user control over the granularity of the merged data. Some GPS devices provide 1Hz data which may be too fine-grained for certain tasks.