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

[Carlosfelipe Pardo]

It would be nice to be able to hop on top of the roof and sleep for a while until you arrive at the destination. Definitely a new travel experience!!

Probably sent while riding a bicycle. Please excuse typos

On 20/08/2013, at 8:44, Kanthimathi Kannan <kanthikannan at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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