Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been heralded as one of the technologies that will fundamentally transform the industries. After years of hype, the adoption of RFID remains weak. This is due in part to the technology itself but also the economy and the overall strategy of the applications. In this research, the conditions in which RFID adoption is applicable are first synthesized. The merit of RFID is then further exploited for the public transportation applications. By employing RFID along with other communication technologies, individual buses can be identified and tracked in real time. With the ability to “calibrate” where exactly the buses are along the bus routes, the arrival time of a bus to a certain bus stop can be estimated more accurately. Passengers can then keep a shorter lead time for catching up a certain scheduled bus and have greater flexibility planning on their transportation.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been heralded as one of the technologies that will fundamentally transform the industries. After years of hype, the adoption of RFID remains weak. This is due in part to the technology itself but also the economy and the overall strategy of the applications. In this research, the conditions in which RFID adoption is applicable are first synthesized. The merit of RFID is then further exploited for the public transportation applications. By employing RFID along with other communication technologies, individual buses can be identified and tracked in real time. With the ability to “calibrate” where exactly the buses are along the bus routes, the arrival time of a bus to a certain bus stop can be estimated more accurately. Passengers can then keep a shorter lead time for catching up a certain scheduled bus and have greater flexibility planning on their transportation.

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