Developing AFC systems

Automatic fee collection (AFC) systems are often developed as stand alone systems. This was perfectly suitable in the past but new developments in the field may change this situation. The advent of new charging schemes make it likely that new systems have to be developed as an integral part of larger ITS systems. Such systems may also perform several services. This may require new approaches for the development of such systems based on ITS architectures and systems engineering. This paper provides some outlines for such a new approach. It is among others based on work done for the Dutch Ministry of Transport.