Integration of Fareboxes with Other Electronic Devices on Transit Vehicles

Abstract

The data that a farebox-based system can provide—boardings by route, direction, time of day, trip, stop, and fare category for day of the year—can be of immense value for planning, scheduling, marketing, and operations monitoring. For the most part, boarding information is being captured by an electronic device (the farebox), but for various reasons, much of that information is lost, and the data quality is often suspect. Integration with other on-board devices could enhance the quality and value of farebox data. For good-quality data segmentation, integration with the head-sign is important. For verification, integration with the speedometer (to get an odometer stamp) is valuable. In a farebox system using a transactional data base, integration with the door sensor and speedometer enables the system to add an odometer stamp to each record. Integration with a vehicle-location system and a vehicle-logic unit offer still more advantages. To move the industry toward data integration, use of open specifications using industry standards is important. Model specifications were developed for direct links between fareboxes and head-signs, speedometers, and door sensors, and for linking fareboxes to a vehicle area network that comply with the SAE J1708 standard.

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