www.discovery.org Technology & Transportation The Dynamic Relationship

The search for solutions to urban road con-gestion frequently leads to promoting telecommu-nications as trip substitution: • Letting employees work at home instead of commuting, which is called telecommuting. • Shopping on the Internet, that is, teleshopping. • Distance learning, which means taking classes via videoconferencing or the World Wide Web. However, the story of telecom and trans-port is much more complex than trip substitution. Telecom includes the Internet, cell phones, the exchange of data between machines, and much more. For example, the automobile industry is now moving to use the Internet to communicate vehicle maintenance status automatically and make it avail