Conventional wisdom holds that telecommuting will reduce trafficcongestion, improve air quality, make location irrelevant and stimulate economic development. Be skeptical and look beyond the hyperbole, advises a UC Davis researcher who has specialized in the study of travel behavior for the past 15 years. The potential of any technology to solve human problems is often oversold, writes Patricia Mokhtarian, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, in a recently presented and published paper titled "The Information Highway: Just Because We're on it Doesn't Mean We Know Where We're Going." For example, the travel and air-quality impacts of telecommuting are so small now as to be virtually unmeasurable, she says. Telecommunications has an enormous potential to change society, she says, but those changes may not be simple, expected or even desired. Mokhtarian, who oversees a $3.5 million telecommuting research project, advises people to view telecommunications technology as inherently neutral and equally able to facilitate unexpected results, such as increased travel, geographic centralization, job loss and economic disparity. Still, she believes the technology should be harnessed for the public good by well-considered planning efforts and land-use policies.