Ticket to the Future: Smart Cards in Public Transportation
Accenture has published a study on the use of smart card technology in public transportation (PDF).
Smart cards are the ticket to the future for most of the world’s transit operators. According to Accenture’s global research, some implementations have been successful, and many have achieved their original objectives. But smart card implementation was viewed by many respondents as being more complicated than originally anticipated: many viewed e-ticketing solely as a means of systems imple- mentation. This limited view increases the risk of a difficult implementation and limits the ultimate benefit to passengers.Although not specifically mentioned in the study, one of the things that's particularly interesting about the requirements for payments in the transit environment is the need for very fast (< 100 ms) response times between the turnstile and the card to ensure delays and queuing don't occur.
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