Amazing Green Roof in New York City: The Public Transit Bus by Green Roots
Geschreven op 11-10-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Natuur, Vervoer en OV
Reconnecting urban communities with nature in a practical and playful way. Bus roots is a public and playful project that uses plants as a creative medium.
It connects the citizens with their community while trying to use the least amount of resources and improving the quality of the environment around it.
Reclaim forgotten space, increase quality of life and grow the amount of green spaces in the city. Natural life, such as plants and animals, is not very common in the city. Most urban environments are lined with concrete, steel and asphalt. These materials help increase the temperature and pollution in the cities. Some cities, like New York, have no surface to grow more green spaces.
Green roofs and vertical gardens have been used as solution to provide green life to space constrained spaces. In general, there are two types of green roof setups, intensive and extensive. Intensive green roofs have more plant diversity but need more soil and care. Extensive green roofs can have a more limited plant selection but have a lighter weight and need less maintenance. However, even if green roofs and vertical gardens could be added to every house and building in the city. The arteries, the streets, can’t be lined with grass or living materials.
A public transit bus has a surface of 340 ft2. The MTA fleet has around 4,500 buses. If we grew a garden on the roof of every one of the 4,500 buses in the MTA bus fleet, we would have 35 acres of new rolling green space in the city. The equivalent to Four Bryant Parks.
The first prototype has been installed on the roof of the BioBus. It is the first bus with an extensive green roof system. It has been growing for five months travelling around New York City and as far as Ohio, so far. Source: Bus Roots
