Internet: investigating new technology's evolving role, nature and effects on transport

Glenn Lyons

doi:10.1016/s0967-070x(02)00023-9

Abstract

In the space of only a few years the Internet has emerged as a mainstream communications medium providing a growing proportion of the population with virtual access to goods, people, opportunities and services. Against a backdrop of highlighting how teleshopping and teleworking alongside traveller information services are advancing as a consequence of the Internet, this paper suggests that the Internet and the virtual mobility it affords must in due course be explicitly addressed within an integrated transport policy. The paper explores the relationships between use of information and communications technology and personal travel highlighting the importance of social issues in gauging whether or not a net positive effect in terms of travel demand and tripmaking can arise from increasing use of the Internet. Suggestions for a policy approach are also made.

Highlights

At the turn of the millennium the Internet is a legacy from the end of one century that holds the prospect of becoming a significant part of our lives in the
3.3 Traveller information Discussion of teleshopping and teleworking above is illustrative of how the Internet can play a part in enabling individuals to undertake tasks and participate in activities without recourse to make trips outside of the home
Lyons et al (2001) in their discussion of this issue note that whilst in the UK government’s integrated transport policy (DETR, 1998) it states that “we are committed to making fullest possible use of new technologies to deliver the New Deal for transport”, in the government’s subsequent £180 billion ten-year spending plan for transport (DETR, 2000a) the document notes only that “the likely effects of increasing Internet use on transport and work patterns are still uncertain, but potentially profound, and will need to be monitored closely” and that “predictions of the effects of greater use of the Internet, of e-commerce, and of teleworking vary considerably”

Summary

Introduction

At the turn of the millennium the Internet is a legacy from the end of one century that holds the prospect of becoming a significant part of our lives in the next. 3.3 Traveller information Discussion of teleshopping and teleworking above is illustrative of how the Internet can play a part in enabling individuals to undertake tasks and participate in activities without recourse to make trips outside of the home.

Results

Conclusion