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.