No time for stopping: A Stop-Less Autonomous Modular (SLAM) bus service

We leverage the in-motion transfer capability of autonomous modular buses to propose SLAM bus, a novel bus service paradigm that gives passengers a nearly stop-less travel experience from their origin to their destination bus stop. It does this by using supplementary modular units that detach and attach from the main bus at bus stops to serve boarding and alighting passengers, while the main bus traverses the route without stopping. The result is a stop-less operation that eliminates the need for passengers to stop at bus stops where they do not wish to alight. For busier bus stops that cannot be effectively served by the stop-less operation, the whole bus makes a stop instead. The service makes both pre-determined and real-time choices between these operating modes based on the expected and actual demand of alighting and non-alighting passengers. The SLAM bus service thus significantly reduces travel times since passengers experience fewer stops between their desired origin and destination bus stops, making its travel time more competitive with private vehicles while still providing the economies of scale of public transport. Our proof-of-concept simulation results show that, compared to an equivalent conventional bus service, the proposed service can reduce passengers’ average travel cost by about 15 − 20 % for a realistic bus route. • Introduce novel AMB-based bus service operating framework called SLAM Bus. • SLAM reduces passengers’ travel time by swapping modular pods to bypass bus stops. • Model how SLAM selects between stop-less and stop-based operations at each bus stop. • Develop dynamics of SLAM operation for cyclical bus route. • Simulate case study to assess SLAM performance under range of demands and fleet sizes. • SLAM reduces passengers’ average travel cost by 15–20% for a realistic bus route.