Passengers turned the electric bus stop into a living room

Monday, January 22, 2018

A living room with lots of green plants, a place to meet, study or have a cup of coffee. That was the result when Chalmers researchers asked passengers on the electric bus route 55 to design an indoor stop where people want to stay.

At the bus stop at Lindholmen, the bus waits indoors. The quiet and emission-free electric drive of bus 55 allows the stop to be placed in the middle of a calm and clean environment.

"The original plan for the indoor bus stop back in 2015 was to create a place where you want to stay on for a while, to study or meet with friends", says Pontus Wallgren, researcher in industrial and material science at Chalmers. "However, when we interviewed passengers it turned out that although the stop is popular, not many people stay there."

This is why a group of passengers were asked to contribute to the further development of the indoor stop, in collaboration with the researchers and the partners in the ElectriCity project .

"The participants all agreed that they wanted to make the stop more like a living room and less like a garage, and with lots of green plants", says Pontus Wallgren. Furniture and plants ordered, the passengers can soon start enjoying their new living room.

The facelift of the bus stop is part of a study that investigates how drivers and passengers experience the electric buses and the bus stops.