Caltrans to Operate Telecommunications Test Center : Computers: Thousand Oaks facility will be designed to teach residents how to find services with keystrokes instead of car keys. It is to open early next year.

This city soon will boast the state’s first telecommunications test center, a research facility that will show residents high-tech ways to consult doctors, question teachers or train employees simply by tapping a few computer keystrokes.

In a pilot project administered by Caltrans, the federal government will put up $1.2 million for an Advanced Telecommunication Center designed to evaluate the practical applications of emerging technology.

By stacking the center with dozens of cutting-edge programs, Caltrans officials hope to teach residents how to transact daily business through computers.

Ultimately, Caltrans wants to persuade residents to go on-line rather than on the road.

“We want to study how to use telecommunications as a means of avoiding a trip,” program coordinator Margaret Moilov said, “how to bring services to you instead of having you drive to the services.”

The technology on display, for example, could show teen-agers how to view the hottest fashions by tapping into a computer video hooked up at a mall. Families might be able to organize virtual-reality reunions with faraway relatives. And accountants might be able to check their clients’ books through video conferencing.

Thousand Oaks leaders admit they don’t quite understand the newfangled technology. But they see the Advanced Telecommunications Center as a speedy on-ramp to the information superhighway.

The city will contribute $14,000 to the telecommunications center, plus space at the Civic Arts Plaza now under construction.

Slated to open early next year, the Advanced Telecommunications Center will feature several components. Most will be set up in the Civic Arts Plaza, but officials also envision mobile units that will travel to classrooms, businesses and homes.

The center will include:

* A teleconference room allowing business people to hold cross-country or even overseas meetings through video screens, providing that the partners have compatible software.

* A mobility-management program offering up-to-the-minute information, in both English and Spanish, on traffic, road conditions and public-transit options.

* A job training center allowing employers to instruct workers at various sites through a single video program.

Caltrans officials will monitor each program, hoping to pinpoint the most popular technologies. By the end of the two-year pilot project, they should be able to advise cities throughout California on which systems nudge the most commuters out of their cars.

As they gear up for the Thousand Oaks center, officials said they have not yet determined whether to charge residents for using the technology.

But they emphasize that they hope to make the programs available to everyone. Indeed, plans call for setting up community test sites to evaluate how youngsters, disabled residents, health care providers and others respond to the new technology.

Based on a few months of market research, Caltrans officials expressed confidence that Thousand Oaks residents will clamor to join the test groups.