Benefits of Using Contactless Smart Card for Government

Taipei Easycard was issued in June 2002. It combines the electronic fare systems of Taipei Metro, Co-operation Buses and Car parks. Taipei Easycard is a contactless smart card, its expected benefits contains three parts: passengers’ benefit, operators’ benefit, and government’s benefit.
The objective of this research is to analyze the benefits of using contactless smart card for government. The benefits for government contain two part: tangible benefits and intangible benefits. The tangible benefits include three parts: information transparency, public transit databse, and the effect to social cost. The intangible benefits are divided into two parts, the management part and image part.
Ths result of the study is that the government subsidies and social cost can be reduced by using smart card. In the intangible part, people are satisfied by the convenience of smart card. However, the government didn’t fully utilize the advantages of smart card. When comparing with the benefits for passengers and operators, the benefits for the government are similar to operators’ benefits but well below passengers’ benefits.