Such relationships include selling, buying, servicing, employment, memberships, friendships, and family. Telecommunications permits geographic decentralization of residential settlement and of organizational activity locations. Decentralization leads to higher travel consumption, because trip origins and destinations tend to be farther apart. New telecommunications functionality resulting from digital switching and fiber optics supports the urbanization of rural communities together with associated growth in economic activity. This pattern typically causes more local automobile traffic and a flow of visitors using transportation from distant locations.
Telecommunications speeds up the pace of economic activity.
The acceleration of commerce tends to generate customized, single-purpose trips that leave immediately and go by the fastest means. These modes generate more traffic congestion than moving the same volumes in mass transit vehicles and large trucks. Telecommunications enables rapid response systems that dispatch customized vehicles to meet personal and organizational needs. Telecommunications enables a wide variety of new last-minute information flows that generate personal travel through attractive invitations and compulsory orders to attend. Telecommunications makes travel time more productive and more feasible for travelers.