BEIJING (Xinhuanet) -- Researchers who tracked the movements of 100,000 people using their cell phone signals revealed that most human beings are indeed creatures of habit.

Most people behave in surprisingly predictable patterns when they go to work, to school and back home, something the researchers said will be useful in city planning and preparing for emergencies.
""Despite the diversity of their travel histories, human follow simple reproducible patterns,"" said co-author Cesar Hidalgo of Northeastern University in Boston.
Truly creatures of habit, most people migrate consistently to the same handful of spots, with occasional ""long hops"" to more distant locations.
The results could also be used to help prevent outbreaks of disease or forecast traffic, the scientists added.