Implementation of Smart Card Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Technology in Small Transit Agencies for Standards Development

TRB's Transit Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Report 79: Implementation of Smart Card Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) Technology in Small Transit Agencies for Standards explores a 90-day pilot operation to demonstratie the feasibility of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Contactless Fare Media System (CFMS) Standard on a small rural agency system. While many of the nation’s large transit agencies have adopted electronic automatic fare collection (AFC) and smart card systems, small and rural agencies remain tied to obsolete manual, cash-based fare collection. Implementation of smart card AFC technology in small and rural transit agencies may increase passenger convenience, improve passenger satisfaction, improve agency efficiency, and provide seamless transfers among other modes of transportation and other transit providers in their area.