Survey to Determine Technology Interest

In an attempt to find more efficient forms of transportation and communication, Caltrans is surveying Ventura County residents to determine their interest in high-tech travel alternatives, officials said.

The goal is to gather information about how residents, educators, government agencies, health-care professionals and others could use “electronic options” to communicate and conduct their business without travel, officials said.

Four thousand four-page questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected Ventura County households in January, and state Department of Transportation officials said they hope to have the results by late March.

The questionnaire asks residents what kinds of telecommunications or transportation systems, such as cellular phones and alternative energy vehicles, they use or are familiar with. It also asks residents if they would be interested in high-tech computer systems that would, for example, allow individuals to obtain medical services from home without having to drive to a doctor’s office or hospital.

Additionally, six focus groups made up of Ventura County educators, city and county officials, health-care professionals, consumers, students and business leaders met last week in Thousand Oaks to discuss ways of using advanced technology.

“We’re inviting comments on the . . . ways that the telecommunications technology could assist various entities,” Caltrans spokeswoman Margaret Moilov said in a prepared statement.

“We see a dynamic public-private partnership emerging and are presently working with GTE on development of demonstrations which would showcase the electronic highway travel alternatives,” she said.

Caltrans is working with the Ventura County Transportation Commission and the city of Thousand Oaks on the project.