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. Use of wireless mobile phones while traveling is the leading example. Wireless data communication between office computer networks and portable personal computers is a new capability being deployed to improve the productivity of business travelers.
Telecommunications makes the transportation system work more effectively and efficiently.
As these lists show, the availability and use of telecommunications eliminates trips and causes trips at the same time. Given the two lists, the answer is inherently difficult to determine. The definitive answer, a history that includes the growth of telecommuting and trip making over the past ten years, can only come from a statistical analysis of comprehensive economic data at the level of the entire economy. Such a follow-up research examination is the most important recommendation of this study.