[sustran] Reg Roof Top Gardens? Does this work? Any ideas?

[Kanthimathi Kannan]

Dear all

If you ever wanted to roll up a fistful of ethical practices into a single
unit of living, breathing, carbon-neutral mass transit, try this one on for
size: A landscape artist in Spain has put a garden on the roof of a bus.

"My mission is to expand the garden area in urban environments, increase
the absorption of CO2 and give public transport a new ecological and
tourist attraction," says designer Marc Granen of his concept, which he's
confusingly calling Phyto Kinetic. (When in doubt, keep it obvious,
dude: *Snakes
on a Plane*, mustard on a hot dog, Garden on a Bus—see a pattern?)

The “autocultural” single-decker has small shrubs and herbs sprouting from
its roof. It can be watered naturally or better still, this being the
blazing hot city of Girona, near Barcelona, by water from the vehicle’s air
conditioning system.

If I was the head of public transit in a perennially-rainy city, say
Seattle, I'd have ordered a fleet of these garden buses yesterday.

Granen's bus-garden baby isn't green for show—he and his team of science
advisors have thought this concept through. One concern they've addressed
is will the added weight of the garden reduce gas mileage? No—Urban
Garden<http://www.urbangardensweb.com/2013/07/24/phyto-kinetic-green-roofs-for-city-buses-and-improved-urban-ecosystem/>reports
that Granen "utilizes a lightweight, 7-centimeter thick hydroponic
foam which is much lighter than soil, thereby significantly reducing the
overall weight of the roof."

Ever the eager beaver, Granen admits a desire to one day bring his lush
roofs to the buses of the Big Apple. Assuming that the average bus roof
size is 20 square meters, he estimates that there are more than 100,000
square meters of green roof in New York City. Imagine what all that
photosynthesis would do to Manhattan air?

But the landscaper isn't naive. He knows that a similar concept, Bio
Bus<http://www.takepart.com/article/2010/10/06/bus-roots-brings-bus-top-gardens-big-apple>,
has failed to catch on. Still, he's cautiously optimistic about his
prototype's future. "Mistakes offer opportunities for solutions," he says.
"Edison performed a thousand failed experiments before developing the light
bulb."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/10/rooftop-gardens-buses_n_3734153.html


Thanks

Kanthi Kannan