New vehicle identification technology applied to bus & rail transit

A vehicle identification system which uses RF techniques in the near-microwave region has application to a variety of transportation modes, including bus and rail. The system includes an active interrogator or reader device, a transmit/receive antenna and a series of uniquely encoded transponders. An attractive feature of the transponder is that it requires no direct power supply, as power is derived from the radiated RF energy of the interrogator. The system has been tested in both rail car identification and bus vehicle location applications.