Mobile Devices Could Prompt Rise in City Living

By being able to do work on the go, and access information everywhere, the prospect of doing work on the commute could make more people opt for the bus or the train rather than the hands-required world of car driving.

"[T]he latest network to overspread our country -- the wireless electromagnetic one -- is just not fully compatible with driving, at least for human brains. In more economic terms, the opportunity cost of car commuting is going up. You can listen to Howard Stern in a car; you can run your business from a train or bus.

Infrastructure is a viscous social structure, so I have no illusions that a century-old transportation system and its attendant urban forms are suddenly going to disappear. But it's all the networks we layer on top of one another -- information, power, transportation, water -- that help determine the social desirability of a place."