Due to the undesirable feature brought on by transportation-oriented local organization, many new ideas have come about to promote a greater sense of community.  These ideas involve redesigning areas to make them more pedestrian-friendly by providing shopping, entertainment, etc. in close proximity and by reducing automobile traffic.

In certain regions of the United States, we are beginning to see communities sprout up that are moving back to traditional values.  One such community is Seaside Florida.  Seaside was designed to achieve a compatibility between urbanization and preservation of nature.  To accomplish these goals, it was decided that people must be able to have the variety of big-city life and also the comforts of suburban life.  Seaside is a small town that provides shopping, entertainment, and a neighborly atmosphere.  Best of all is the fact that everything is in such close proximity that the use of an automobile is a hindrance not an advantage.  By making Seaside conducive to walking, two key problem's in today's society were drastically reduced.  Traffic and pollution produced by automobiles is something that won't be found in Seaside.  People enjoy themselves by sitting on their porch or engaging in many of the other resort-like amenities that Seaside has to offer.  In the future, as people become more tired of the daily grind, it is likely that we will see more communities try to provide the same features as Seaside Florida.  Click here for more information about Seaside.

Another innovation in community design is traffic calming.  Traffic calming involves reducing the dependence on automobiles, which will in turn decrease the amount of traffic in a city or town.  This can be accomplished by instituting slower speed limits, especially in residential neighborhoods, that will lead to an overall safer environment for the community.  A related goal of traffic calming is to improve conditions for pedestrians, bicyclists, and anyone else who is using a mode of transportation other than a car.  If people will feel safer they will be more likely to use these others forms of transportation.  This can not only help the environment by reducing pollution, but it can also encourage more interactions between the members of the community.  Another group of people who would benefit from this change would be senior citizens.  As a whole, they are more dependent on walking for their transportation needs, especially since some of them are not fit to drive.

One community that has made an effort to use traffic calming is Wakefield; a volunteer community of 26,000 peoples about 12 miles north
of Boston.  They have added more sidewalks, bikeways, and bike racks to give people more options when determining their mode of transportation. There is also the belief that reducing the traffic it will help to control the growing parking problem that Wakefield is facing.  Members  of Wakefield are concerned with ensuring child safety, especially when they are traveling to and from school.  A more simplistic approach is to improve the quality of public transportation, such as buses, so that people are more willing to leave their cars at home.

Another attempt to control the traffic problem are the Neighborhood Transportation Network (NTN) in Minneapolis and New York city that are using the idea of reverse direction traffic calming.  The NTN was initially created in opposition of the expansion of the interstate by
educating the community and increasing community involvement in the planning.  This allowed neighborhood groups to work with the city
representatives to formulate plans for redesigning streets, housing, and commercial development.  New York reversed the traffic flow on certain streets in Manhattan to decrease the amount of traffic in these neighborhoods.  This allowed the streets to still be used by residents but not by cross-town traffic.
 
In addition to physically redesigning communities, another novel idea suggests using telecommunication technology to promote a sense of community.

More and more Americans feel that there has been a reduction in the sense of community due to increased metropolitan congestion, traffic, and pollution.  Teleactivities are helping people recover the sense of community.  Teleactivities can be described as social activities based on interactive telecommunications to connect people together with peers, data or work.
Telecommuting is an example of these activities. This is allowing  people to work from home regardless of the distance to the office. More and more people will move to rural communities with interests that are shared by other people. By eliminating the time to travel to and from work, telecommuters will have more free time available which can then be used for social activities. Another new concept is telesocializing. This is the use of telecommunications for social  for social interaction. Two people can now engage in real time video conferencing regardless distance and without having to worry about high phone bills. This concept together with teleshopping (buying everything from clothing to groceries from the internet) will give people more free time to interact with neighbors and family. As more people become aware of these innovations, their use will bring people together. This will hopefully bring back the sense of community.
 
With the advent of telecommuting and as it becomes more prevalent with the introduction of more broad band, high speed communication in the home, a reduction in the number of people who have to travel in to work will decrease. The most common type of job which can be maintained in the home is one of a management role or a technical job. This is not to say that all telecommuters will be able to stay out of the office, but the need for daily trips into the office and and permanent office space will not be necessary. Airline tickets and an office in the home will replace the usual "office job". The town of Telluride, Colorado has made itself known as a telecommuting community for those who want to be released from the hustle and bustle of city life and its annoyances.

With the advance of telecommuting and an increase in telecommuters other changes are sure to follow. These changes will effect the environment, automobile use, a reduction in office space, a changing transit structure and a transformation in the use of the home. With all of these changes from a continued increase in the number of telecommuters, other more broad changes in the social structure will arise.