[LINK] Wireless Smartphone Transport Tickets

[Tom Worthington]

Scott Howard wrote (was: "Re: [LINK] more myki woes"):
>... Singapore has completely variable fares for both Rail and Bus, which depend
> on exactly where you get on and off, not unlike Sydney.  ...

Given that so many people now use smart phones on public transport,
perhaps these could be used for a ticketing system. The passengers
could be provided with free, or low cost WiFi, as an incentive to use
the system.

Some transport companies are providing free wireless Internet access
on-board for passengers. An example is the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
(UK) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_Guided_Busway>.
When completed in 2010 this will replace the Adelaide O-Bahn as the
longest guided busway in the world:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/04/travelling-worlds-longest-guided-busway.html>.

If a bus, train or tram is already equipped with a WiFi hotspot, then
just a small computer would be needed for ticketing. When the passenger
boarded the vehicle they would activate their phone and use an app, or
web interface, to get an electronic ticket from the onboard computer.
For frequent travellers this could be one button push.

As with smart card systems, stored value could be used for small
transactions. The passenger would "charge" their phone with an
amount transferred from a credit card or bank account and then use that
to pay for fares. The ticket computer on the bus could handle the low
value fare transactions on-board and use the Internet connection of the
bus for the higher value recharge transactions and to exchange data with
the transport system. No ticket machines or kiosks would be required as
the passenger's phone would provide the interface to the system. The
ticket system could be flat fare, timed or distance based.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274