Smart Cards & Other Systems
SMART CARDS & OTHER SYSTEMS TO MAKE CITIES MORE LIVABLE
Thousands of Parisians can now board a bus or open a turnstile without removing a microchip card from their pockets. Or, they can tap its plastic envelope to summon emergency help. The contact-less cards, picking up radio frequencies in a fraction of a millisecond, display charges, fund balance and route information, and will, in the future, identify fare-beaters. Developed by RATPP, the Paris equivalent of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the card is programmable to give real-time transit times, pay tolls, telephones, and other accounts, and control access to secure buildings or personal computers. In August, the card will be used by the 40,000 employees of RATPP, which has franchised the system to seven other cities around the world.
As Shown in the News and Notes page, the new generation smart card is one the many Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to improve city travel that was reported by transportation officials from 12 European and North American cities at “The International Urban ITS Workshop,” who convened July 8-9, 1996 in New York City. Hosted by the NYC Department of Transportation and The Urban ITS Center of Polytechnic University, the workshop was designed to focus on ITS technologies geared more to cities than to highways. While all the cities are using electronic controls to increase the efficiency of existing roads and intersections, nearly all also have policies to foster systems to reduce auto use and pollution, improve safety, and preserve urban quality of life. Proof of the usefulness of any ITS innovation was viewed as necessary by almost everyone in order to gain acceptance by the public, elected officials and agency staff, most of whom are unfamiliar with ITS and have competing priorities for limited transportation resources.
Urban ITS technologies that are being piloted in cities include:
- Bus tracking and communication
- Transit information systems (routes, fares, schedules, performance)
- Waiting time signage at bus stops and train stations
- Electronic toll and fare payment
- Traffic signal priority for buses and trolleys
- Pedestrian crossing safeguards
- Parking availability message signs
- Differential pricing parking meters for residents and transients
- Detection of vehicles in at-grade rail road crossings
- Systems that reduce heavy truck travel in center city.
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