摘要: |
King County Metro Transit is the lead agency responsible for implementing the Central Puget Sound Regional Fare Coordination Project (RFC Project). The project features a smart card technology that will support and link the fare collection systems of the major transit agencies operating in the Puget Sound region. The RFC Project will consolidate literally hundreds of existing fare media in an effort to streamline the management of fare transactions and facilitate the cross-jurisdictional and multi-modal trip making of travelers in the Puget Sound region. All seven public transit agencies in the Central Puget Sound area are participating in the project, and on April 29, 2003 each of these agencies signed agreements to participate. These are: (1) King County Metro Transit, lead agency, (2) Community Transit, (3) Everett Transit, (4) Kitsap Transit, (5) Pierce Transit, (6) Sound Transit, and (7) Washington State Ferries. The Puget Sound Regional Fare Card program will be evaluated as a case study. The intent is to focus the evaluation on the organizational and institutional processes by which the project Partners face and seek to resolve the challenges that arise as they progress from planning to implementation. The evaluation will provide qualitative information for other transit agencies seeking to implement their own fare card programs to help ensure the success of those implementations. This approach will require a close involvement of the evaluation team in the project to thoroughly understand the project's history and current processes. The objective of this evaluation is to understand how the Partner agencies work through the process and challenges of identifying and overcoming the institutional, technical, organizational, financial, contractual, and other related hurdles associated with this project. |