Everyday travel and use of information and telecommunication technology at home: an analysis of Norwegian data.

On the basis of the National Personal Travel Survey 1997/98 and a connected postal survey of the use of information- and communication technology at home, the relation between mobility and use of stationary communication has been studied. On the basis of these results we cannot see any substitutionary effects of the use of stationary technology at people’s home on the use of mobile technology. Access to and use of information technology seems not to have a significant impact on travel activities in everyday life. Stationary communication seems to be a supplement to activities based on mobile technology. For people who work more than “normal” weekly working hours. stationary technology seems to give them greater flexibility in regard to where to work, but it does not necessarily reduce their travel activity. The spatial flexibility will also give a temporal flexibility, which means that work trips and other trips can be more dispersed over the day than is the situation today. The positive consequence can be a reduction in the rush-hour traffic; the negative is that it is more difficult to offer a good public transport service when travel needs are more spread in time.