Citizens also experience increased control over the demands placed upon their lives from the convenience offered by a community-wide information infrastructure. Smart Communities are also economically competitive in the new global economy and attract commerce as a result of an advanced telecommunications infrastructure. The Smart Community definition also speakes to transformation of a community. 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.
Products still have to get to the marketplace.
Transportation supports trade and commerce and the physical movement of products will remain important. Telecommunications 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.