As a component of a full transportation system, telecommunications can be substituted for some physical trips. For example, the movement of information and services to people achieves the same purpose as the movement of people to information and services. The Information Age could be significant in the future, but for now California needs to strengthen its economy. California's competitors are not waiting. California's economy is part of a global economy that is already based primarily on knowledge-based trade.
Products still have to get to the marketplace.
Transportation supports trade and commerce, and the physical movement of products will remain important. Telcommunications mobility supplements the physical components of the transportation system, it does not supplant them. Not all trade transactions involve tangible products. Buyers and sellers of knowledge-based services do not necessarily need ports, trucks, warehouses and physical trading floors to complete their transactions. Buyers and sellers of physical products can also transact business electronically in a way that minimizes their need for physical movement.