The Communications/Transportation Tradeoff

In: Policy studies journal: an international journal of public policy, Band 6, Heft 1, S. 74-83

Abstract

A review of the relation of the telephone to transportation shows a number of complex directions of causality: the telephone 'facilitated better coordination of trains, traffic, & deliveries' resulting in more reliable, prompter service & an increase in 'remote marketing of perishable goods;' it changed 'the pattern of Ur settlement toward a megalopolitan structure'; it encouraged the scattering of business districts; & it facilitated a diffusion of residences to the suburbs. The problem of examining the short run vs long run effects of the communications/transportation tradeoff is discussed. Three types of studies in this area are reviewed: (1) office traffic studies, (2) futurist experiments, & (3) econometric studies. A model of the communications/travel relationship is presented & an agenda for future research is suggested. 2 Figures. G. Simpson.