isturban@cityu.edu.hk

Many products and services will soon be (or are already being) sold over the Internet or other networks. Paying for these with standard methods of payments, such as cash, checks, credit card, or debit card, may be ineffective or inefficient. For such cases, electronic card payment systems are more appropriate.

Several things need to be considered when investigating electronic card payment system options, including; customer needs and benefits, developmental and operational cost, corporate benefits, continually changing technologies, critical mass of customers, security, standards of payment systems, and customer perception and comfort with new technologies.

This paper analyses how smart card-based systems used in mass transportation. Managers in mass transportation face the following questions: do you develop your own electronic card payment system, do you wait for multifunctional cards that will be accepted across many industries to provide the functionality required in you market, or do you do nothing. The discussion here concentrates mainly on the transportation industry, where the transactions and payments are made on local area networks.

Key words: Smart cards, contact cards, contactless cards, proximity cards, electronic card payments, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), electronic commerce, electronic toll collection (ETC).