The City of Santa Monica is offering motorists real-time information on something useful: available parking spaces. While the service is somewhat of an oddity, it does suggest that the mobile Internet and related services are just around the corner for many day-to-day activities. We keep hearing that shopping related data will become available but there are far bigger, environmentally related issues that communities can tackle with the new technology. Reducing traffic jams are one potential option. If traffic congestion in U.S. cities could be reduced by even 5%, the amount of fuel savings and reduced air pollution would be worth billions of dollars.