Abstract The potential of new communications systems to substitute for travel is a frequent topic of scenarios of the future. The author outlines several futures research projects underway in the Business Planning Group at Bell Canada that address the substitution issue. Forces creating interest in substitution are new computer and communications technologies and the exponential growth in information generation and transfer activities in the central institutions of modern society. The application of economic cost/benefit analysis to the substitution question is examined. The author argues that this form of analysis ignores far too many other relevant issues that should also be studied. These issues include a behavioural analysis of the reasons underlying travel and communications decisions and a consideration of the secondary environmental costs associated with these two activities.
[1]
R. H. Randolph,et al.
Computer-assisted expert interrogation: A report on current methods development☆
,
1973
.
[2]
Alex Reid.
New Directions in Telecommunications Research.
,
1971
.
[3]
Murray Turoff,et al.
Delphi conferencing: Computer-based conferencing with anonymity
,
1971
.
[4]
Jerome B. Wiesner.
Human communications
,
1973,
IEEE CSIT Newsletter.
[5]
Lawrence H. Day.
Long range planning in Bell Canada
,
1973
.
[6]
Lawrence H. Day,et al.
The future of computer and communications services
,
1899,
AFIPS National Computer Conference.