| Summary: | Smart card technology is certainly not new; it has been widely implemented in
public transportation in many countries. It is considered as a permanent and
efficient fare collection system, which allows to enhance planning and management
activities of transport authorities and optimize vehicle supply in accordance
with the passenger demand. Overall, smart cards are considered to
improve user perceptions regarding public transportation, lead to changes in
individuals’ travel behavior and, consequently, decrease amount of private vehicles
in transit. However, successful implementation of new fare collection system
largely depends on its wide user adoption. Therefore, this study focuses on
identification of factors that influence user intention to adopt smart cards in
public transit sector. Development of the research model was based on several
technology acceptance theories: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Technology
Acceptance Model (TAM), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) and Unified Theory
of Acceptance and Use of Technology2 (UTAUT2). The proposed model
incorporated perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, relative advantage,
social influence, habit, security, transparency and trust as major predictors of
the new system acceptance. Age, gender, education, media exposure, computer
self-efficacy, smartphone and Internet use were included as control variables.
The study results showed that habit, economic profitability dimension of
relative advantage and trust played predominant role in individuals’ intention
to adopt smart cards. While, transparency favorably influenced user trust in
vendor. Surprisingly, none of the TAM predictors influenced passengers’ intention
to adopt the system. Effect of social influence and users’ security concerns
were also insignificant. Out of seven control variables only smart card media
exposure and smartphone use duration were found to be influencing behavioral
intention. Overall, the proposed model explained 54% of variance in user intention
to accept smart cards.
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