MOTORS OR MODEMS?

Developments in telecommunications and IT have the potential to reduce traffic growth, and hence congestion, as alternatives to travel, in the form of teleworking, videoconferencing, and teleservices, are expanded, and as IT improves business logistics and the utilisation of road goods vehicles. There has been considerable recent interest in these possibilities, and the present report seeks to quantify their potential impacts for the first time. It uses the Government's new revised National Road Traffic Forecasts, which were published in October 1997, to consider what would happen to congestion in the absence of the increased use of telecoms. The report concludes that increased use of telecoms will lead to a significant reduction in traffic growth. Under the Report's optimistic scenario, traffic growth would be more than halved. Because congestion costs rise more rapidly than do traffic levels, this means that the growth in congestion could be cut by up to 70 per cent with greater use of telecoms. (A)

• Corporate Authors:

  NATIONAL ECONOMIC RESEARCH ASSOCIATES (NERA)

  15 STRATFORD PLACE
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  W1N 9AF
• Authors:
  • DODGSON, J
  • SANDBACH, J
  • SHURMER, M
  • van Dijk, T
  • Lane, B
  • McKinnon, A
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 62 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Economic growth; Forecasting; Telecommunications; Telecommuting; Traffic congestion; Travel; Work trips
• Uncontrolled Terms: Growth rate; Increase
• ITRD Terms: 632: Congestion (traffic); 224: Cost; 132: Forecast; 265: Growth rate; 9032: Increase; 698: Journey; 621: Journey to work; 9117: Telecommunication; 9127: Teleworking
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00761783
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Apr 15 1999 12:00AM