Transportation and telecommunications: mutual relationship, synergy of concepts, role of mobile communications

Transportation and telecommunications are two fields that have much to do with each other, They impact each other´s demand for services and they embody many similar concepts. Whilst it is transportation that first brought people together, centuries ago, and created the need for telecommunications, now telecommunications is an increasingly important infrastructure for transportation. This paper focusses on the trends that are taking place in both fields and examines the opportunities for interaction between them in the context of mobile communications on one hand, and vehicle navigation and information systems on the other hand. The goal of the paper is to trigger discussions about what kind of communications infrastructure is needed to support intelligent vehicle and highway systems (IVHS). As a prelude to the main topic, the paper briefly considers the mutual relationship between transportation and telecommunications. Sometimes they are alternatives to each other (phone vs. visit) and sometimes they fuel demand for each other (phone remote contacts). Some shared concepts such as traffic and congestion are also presented as they may inspire cross-fertilized solutions