"Jim Higgins" <gordian238@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:doCdnRe6KeV8pNrVnZ2dnUVZ_tyknZ2d@eaglecompute rtechnology...
> Cell phone users secretly tracked in study
> http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/04/c....ap/index.html
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000
> people outside the United States through their cell phone use and
> concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.
>
> The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and
> ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in
> the United States.
>
> It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people
> move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied
> mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.
>

Why are these results considered suprising? Auto insurance companies have
been warning for decades that most accidents happen close to home, because
most people only travel in a small radius around their home.

Where accidents happen

Miles from home Percentage of accidents
1 mile or less 23 percent
2 to 5 miles 29 percent
6 to 10 miles 17 percent