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Electronic Cards for Traffic and Transport

Objective

The objectives of this project are to explore the fields of application of electronic cards to improve the efficiency and safety of both individual and public transport.
More precisely the main goals are:
1 To identify areas of Pan-European applications in individual and public transport and to assess the costs and benefits of different applications as well as their market potentials.
2 To select, outline and evaluate one application for technical development, i.e. a complete system with all its components (cards, read/write equipment, transmission equipment interfacing systems, etc...)
The research project, titled SMART, aimed at developing an intelligent information carrier for different transport applications. The objective of the project was to explore the fields of application for electronic microprocessor smart cards in European individual and public transport and to select and to evaluate one such application for prototype development.

The following results have been obtained:
the 2 main types of cards identified are the payment card and the portable file card (The payment card is presently being developed for individual and public transport payment in urban areas in Scandinavia and the portable file card was developed for administrative purposes, especially for truck and car fleet monitoring and freight administration);
a card accepting device for vehicles has been outlined;
shortcomings have been identified that influence the feasibility of the card system;
the current generation of cards have been found to be good enough for pilot testing;
the crucial point for early implementation scenarios has been identified as the lack of standardisation.
The technical approach taken by the project is to investigate potential fields of application and assess the consequent markets for alternative types of more or less sophisticated cards. Given the objective of universal and simple use, compatibility problems will be studied and the possibility of standardizing the information held on the cards (in terms of type, format, structure and density) will be explored. The consequences for users, manufacturers public transport operators, freight transport companies and traffic authorities will be studied.
A prototype development for a selected application will be produced.
Main Deliverables:
A set of functional and technical requirements for the most promising applications of smart cards.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

TFK Transportforschung GmbH
EU contribution
No data
Address
Lilienstraße 19
20095 Hamburg
Germany

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Total cost
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Participants (5)