Tele-commuting

The most radical changes in people's travel behaviour in cities may come from revolutionary advances in new information and communication technologies: satellites, fibre optics, cellular phones, electronic mail. These have opened up immense opportunities to live and work unconstrained by the simplistic concepts of physical space. The central business district may soon lose its relevance, giving way to new paradigms of city planning.

Japan is leading the way with such project as: the Intelligent Cities Project, Technopolis, the Media City, the Advanced Information City, for example. The national IT (Information Technology) Plan in Singapore has the ambitious goal of transforming the city-state into an 'intelligent island'. Hong Kong is also quietly on its way to becoming the city with the most advanced IT and networking facility on the Pacific Rim.

A major American telephone company offered telecommuting opportunities to its workers following the 1993 earthquake in Los Angeles. Nine months later, nine of of 10 employees who accepted the "telecommuting relief package" are still working from home and almost half work five days a week.