GPS tracking shows Rock County residents still traveling more than other counties

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Rock County residents are traveling further from home than residents of surrounding counties during Governor Tony Evers’ safer-at-home order.

A team of researchers at UW-Madison, led by geography professor Song Gao, is using anonymous, aggregated cellphone GPS data to map out how far people across the country are traveling on a day-to-day basis.

The mapping from the Geospatial Data Science Lab shows Rock County residents are moving further distances compared to many other counties in the state, including Green, Dane and Walworth counties.

The data measure the maximum distance traveled from the initial starting point of each day, and Gao’s team of researchers are tracking how those numbers have changed over time.

On Monday, Rock County’s median distance traveled was 1.63 kilometers, which is equal to just over one mile away from home. On that same day, Green County’s median distance was 1.04 kilometers, and Dane County was down to 0.04 km.

Rock County’s graph of median distance traveled shows consistently higher numbers than its surrounding counties over the last three weeks.

Rock County median travel distance by day, based on 2,534 samples (via UW-Madison Geospatial Data Science Lab)

The chart suggests local residents travel the least on weekends, with peak dates of travel on Fridays: March 27, April 3 and April 10.

Rock County also saw increased travel on Tuesday, April 7, the day of the spring election, with a median travel distance of 2.7 kilometers.

Dane County has not had a day above one kilometer of median travel since March 20, and Green County has only seen one day above two kilometers over that same span.

Overall, Rock County’s travel distance is down 74 percent from data measured at the end of February and beginning of March, but that difference is not as low as the change seen in Dane County (100 percent), Green County (89 percent) and Walworth County (85 percent) among others.

Rock County’s rate of COVID-19 spread appears to be slowing down, but local health officials continue to emphasize the importance of social distancing to prevent the outbreak from worsening.