ShuttleSLAM: An Integrated Feeder and Arterial Bus Service Without Transfers

Abstract

We leverage the in-motion transfer (IMT) capability of autonomous modular vehicles (AMVs) to propose a novel integrated feeder-and-arterial bus service with stop-less operations on the arterial route and seamless on-board passenger transfers between the arterial and feeder routes. This builds upon our recently developed SLAM (Stop-Less Autonomous Modular) bus paradigm, which eliminates the need for passengers to stop at each bus stop while traveling along a route. In the proposed “ShuttleSLAM” service, a shuttle detaches in-motion from the main bus at each feeder route to serve that route’s demand, while the main bus continues along the arterial without stopping. The shuttle cycles the feeder route before returning to the arterial to attach in-motion to the next main bus. Simulation results show that, compared to an equivalent conventional feederand-arterial bus service, ShuttleSLAM can reduce passengers’ average travel cost by 10−20% while simultaneously increasing the system capacity by 50% or more.