Communication and its relationship with digital and physical mobility patterns : a review

With a new look on the phenomenon of mobility this chapter aims to contribute to the formulation of theories about people, society, and mobility. In this case, as traditionally used, the physical traffic and transportation system is not the starting point. It assumes that not just physical infrastructures and modalities are involved. In order to understand mobility—and that includes also transport of goods—the starting point must be the so-called communicative system. “Man is a communicative being; he is not made to be alone” (Aristoteles, 400 years before Christ). Yes indeed, people need contacts and meetings to communicate with each other. A society without communication is unthinkable. This communication now evokes physical mobility, but also, what we call digital or virtual mobility. You do not have to go on the road or even travel at the desired moment to communicate with each other. The communicative system is therefore the starting point for thinking about transportation and mobility. From this starting point, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding the phenomenon of mobility better. From there, the question arises how to quantify and test hypothesis. Our intention is to trace endogenous relationships—so within the communicative system—between the physical and digital mobility and to find out if there exists an interchange between these two subsystems, in search of planning instruments to diminish the number of undesirable physical mobility. We conducted a small, preliminary and indicative research on this, a first struggling, and highlight a veil on this.