Transit fare collection systems are discussed. The public transit industry has shown a strong interest in the value that smart cards can bring to the fare collection process. At the same time, the toll collection industry has migrated to radio frequency (RF) methods for advanced electronic toll collection and traffic management (ETTM) systems. The ideal solution to the fare collection problem may be to combine the salient features of smart cards with RF data communications between the fare card and the transportation system. The resulting system would have all of the desirable features of hands-free fare collection combined with the data management aspects of smart cards. The authors discuss the conceptual framework, the development progress, and the implementation schedule for the early tests of a hands-free RF smart card fare collection system. Cost goals and performance targets are also presented.
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