The impacts of ICT on travel behaviour and freight distribution patterns

The new information and communications technologies (ICT) are changing the way we undertake many activities - working, shopping, learning, having fun and many kinds of social interaction. Historically, we have associated transport activities with carrying out these functions. Either we need to travel to do them, or we have needed to have physical objects sent and received.

This has been changing for well over a century, with the arrival of telecommunications and broadcast technologies. So, for example, travel is not always necessary to communicate with distant friends and business partners (due to the telegraph, telephone and fax); nor is it necessary to go to the theatre or cinema to see a play or a film (due to TV).

So "virtual mobility" or "virtual accessibility" is not entirely a new phenomenon.

However, the "convergence" of IT, telecommunications and broadcast technologies in the latter years of the 20th century - accelerated by both increased processing power and affordability - have led to many new possibilities for carrying out activities virtually, and therefore in principle without the need to travel.

It is important for transport analysts and planners to understand the transport effects of these new technologies.

The central questions

The core of the study is the impact of the use of ICT on travel behaviour and freight distribution, in terms of new ICT-based applications changing the way people travel and changing the way goods and services are delivered.  The central questions are:

• How is travel replaced, generated or modified by applications such as teleworking, ecommerce and other electronically mediated activities?

• How is the movement of goods replaced, generated or modified by applications such as ecommerce and electronic service delivery?

The project tackled  these questions through a review of existing studies. The following key related themes were also addressed.

Spatial effects

Amongst the effects predicted with widespread increases in online activities is that people will live further away from where they have traditionally needed to live to work, shop and play. The result will be that people will perhaps make fewer journeys, but those they make will usually be longer.

At an individual level this could mean a heightened likelihood to relocate away from urban centres. At the aggregate level, this may mean an increased tendency to urban sprawl, and increased pressure on rural areas for both housing and business development.

The study examines the literature on these issues, separating the empirical evidence from the conjecture.

Effects on other modes

There is considerable speculation both in the academic and popular literature about the potential impacts of virtual mobility on other modes of travel, particularly public transport. Will the use of telework and home shopping, for example, have a disproportionate impact on public transport - perhaps even making it so that some marginal services are no longer viable?

And how does the use of ICT to enable remote activities compare to other modes when it comes to pursuing the goal of "sustainable mobility"?

Transport modelling

The current forms of transport modelling do not take account of virtual mobility - referred to by some as the "no travel" option.

What do transport modellers and transport planners need to take account of when forecasting transport requirements and analysing different policy options?

There are data collection issues here, as well as the need for new theoretical approaches.

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