A couple of weeks ago the Irish Times had a headline that caught by eye, Can Broadband Break Gridlock?. Unfortunately the article went on to talk about how through broadband you could get traffic reports. But it got me thinking. In places with good access to broadband do/can people drive less or do fewer people need to drive? What are the trickledown cost savings in terms of less road maintenance, fewer gallons of gas, and fewer headaches on the roads? There are financial, environmental, and sanity savings to consider.
People don’t seem to get excited enough at the thought of what we could do with broadband – maybe we need to really look at what we could quit doing and quit spending with broadband. Transportation is just one facet. (I have seen numbers on the cost savings of telehealth – never mind life savings.) But I think transportation is something that everyone can understand. There are numbers available for telework, which I think most often requires broadband.
I’ve been trying to find any such study that really just looks at traffic-related savings but so far nothing. Listening to legislative committee hearings about the proposed broadband director and advisory committee – it has occurred to me that if I were in charge I’d do a study of the cost savings potential of broadband. And from that I’d design my budget.
anne there was a large project in california not long ago using wimax with low spectrum for the road systems.I will see if i can get you that info.Also many of the power companies and other metering companies have been using wimax for reading metres which saves them over the long run and also saves consumers.
By: jamie gilchrist on May 29, 2007
at 12:37 pm
I love the idea of reading meters remotely – because I hate the idea of letting strangers into my home under the guise o checking my meter. I think that’s a great example of saving time, money and offering a safer service!
By: Ann Treacy on May 29, 2007
at 6:42 pm
I have some data on regions using it but mainly most of them are in other countries.With technology in many cases we have been left in the dirt and the other countries have gotten ahead of us.
By: jamie gilchrist on May 29, 2007
at 8:44 pm
Yes, I think the OECD international broadband take rate reports have indicated that we are behind and we’re slipping:
http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,2340,en_2649_34223_38446855_1_1_1_1,00.html
By: Ann Treacy on May 30, 2007
at 9:14 pm
thats why a few of us want to bring us back to the forefront by making it so everyone has the chance to learn at a highspeed level and do business in same way
By: jamie gilchrist on May 30, 2007
at 9:47 pm