Hundreds of Dunedin people have had their every move tracked by satellite as part of a Dunedin City Council transport study.
More than 200 people have so far donned a GPS tracking device for a week, with the council aiming to monitor the movements of 335 residents by the end of next month.
Transport planning manager Sarah Connolly said people slipped the device in their pocket whenever they went anywhere, providing the council with valuable information on where they went and how they got there.
The last time such a study was done was in 1989 and it was likely things had changed since then, Mrs Connolly said.
Participants in the survey were randomly selected and given an assurance that information collected would be kept confidential and only used for statistical purposes.
The survey was taking a bit longer than anticipated because there were not enough volunteers in outlying suburbs such as Port Chalmers and Green Island so more had to be recruited.
Results of the survey would be ready early next year and would be used to update the council's ''Tracks'' transportation model.
The model helps council planners and engineers predict transport planning problems and forecast future traffic growth.
The latest census data would also be added to the transport planning model.
''We got some information from the census which showed we had more people cycling, slightly less people using the bus and about the same number walking [compared with the previous census].''
The Ministry of Transport was also interested in how the survey went because it used different methods and the Dunedin study was a bit more ''high-tech'', Mrs Connolly said.
- by Dan Hutchinson
