The German city of Soest is trialling a different approach altogether, in what is claimed to be a world-first pilot of "check-in, be-out" technology.
The city’s bus operator is running field tests of the completely ticketless Big Bird system, which uses Bluetooth receivers installed on the bus to detect how far a passenger has travelled, and charge their account accordingly.
The ‘check in, be out’ (CIBO) approach requires a passenger to ‘check in’ on a service by selecting their route and time from the smartphone app.