University of California Transportation Center

On February 20, 1986, the regular monthly meeting of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Transportation and Communications Committee was held as a two-way videoconference. Analysis of travel changes associated with the videoconference showed that vehicle miles traveled actually increased, compared to an average meeting held at the usual single location at SCAG offices. Although the average distance per person to the nearest teleconference site was 24% lower than the distance to the SCAG offices, the attendance at the teleconference was so much higher than average that total VMT was 29% higher than for a typical meeting held at SCAG.