Transportation, Telecommunications, and the Changing Geography of Opportunity

New telecommunications — digital information and communication technologies that support interaction and transaction over long distances — are emerging as a primary force in shaping cities. And more fundamentally, they are becoming one of the most important variables in defining spatial relationships among people and organizations located in metropolitan areas. Manifested by the rapid growth of the Internet, ATMs, and mobile phones, telecommunications are permeating the physical structure, the economic production, and the social life of cities. Visibly and invisibly, these technologies are creating new spatial paths and barriers that will profoundly affect people’s access to economic opportunities and social services. Therefore, one of the most important tasks for urban researchers in the information age is to help policy makers and the general public to understand, monitor, predict, and respond to spatial consequences resulting from a massive-scale deployment of new telecommunications.