The Otago Regional Council (ORC) is playing a key role in trying to best meet the transport needs of Dunedin's young people.

Last year the council part-funded a survey into young people's attitudes towards, and use of, public transport in the city.

The results were included in a report tabled at a meeting of the ORC's policy and resource planning committee today.

The survey was part of a broader research effort by University of Otago researchers Sandy Mandic and Paula Skidmore looking at the lifestyle trends of local secondary school students.

Among other things, the researchers looked at the frequency with which students from different parts of the city travel across town and when; their motivations for using public transport and barriers to its use; and how and where they access timetable information.

The survey also looked at how they get home from the city centre at night; what they like about bus travel and any problems using GoCard.

A total of 1,398 students from 10 secondary schools, mainly aged 13 to 15 years, completed the online bus survey.

Among the preliminary findings:

Sixty-one percent of youth reported using public transport.

Other than to school, students using the bus every day, or nearly every day, were mostly travelling to school. Half use the bus once a week or more, but only 15% use public transport to get to school on a daily basis.

When travelling by bus, school students are most likely to be going to the city centre (29%); school (22%); or shops somewhere other than in the city centre (16%).

Only 24% of school students use the bus once a week or more to travel to recreational facilities. Sixty-two percent use the bus at least once a week to travel to shops in the city centre and 33% to travel to shops elsewhere.

ORC director of policy and resource planning Fraser McRae said the survey was conducted to inform the Council's considerations around the broader transport needs of Dunedin's young people.

Mr McRae said the ORC and Dunedin City Council will be able to use the report and continue to work collaboratively on improving bus transport for the young.