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12 Sustainable bus stop designs and why we need them

Bus stops that revel in sustainable design

Protecting the environment and reducing personal carbon print is the responsibility of every person. An easy method of decreasing your personal carbon footprint is by using public transport. A sizeable percentage of the public prefers this form of transport. Although merely opting for public transport brings downs your carbon footprint, we can bring down even further. Rather than relying on buses operating on oil and gas, we should prefer electric buses. The only main problem to this move is charging the buses. However, with sustainable bus stop concept designs, it won’t be much of a problem.

12 Sustainable bus stop concept designs

With homes becoming more sustainable nowadays, it would only be a matter of time before the concept of sustainability is applied to other outdoor structures. Bus stops seem to feature high on this list, with many sustainable bus stop concept designs being put forward by individuals in recent times. Here are 12 such amazing concept designs that could literally change the way we look at bus stops.

1. Sara Partridge Bus Stop Design

Sara Partridge Bus Stop Design

The winner of the Bus Stop Shelter Design Competition, this bus stop design by Sara Partridge enables a fully functional bus stop to double as an environmentally responsible rain garden. The design features colorful shade structure cisterns that offer ample protection from the sun and rain.

A built-in harvesting system will collect the rainwater that collects on the cisterns and reroute it to irrigate native plants in the area. In addition to allowing commuters to wait for their bus conveniently, the bus stop also features bike racks in addition to welcoming pedestrians and even cars.

2. EyeStop Bus Stop

EyeStop Bus Stop

This interactive bus stop concept design aims to integrate cities with interactive services, entertainment and community information, all powered by state of the art sensing technologies.

The solar powered design features a bus stop that is partially covered with screens and e-INK that are touch sensitive. Users can use these screens to plan their trip, surf the web, monitor pollution levels and exchange community information while waiting for their bus.

3. Verdance Vertical Urban Green Structure

Verdance Vertical Urban Green Structure

This ambitious projects aims to integrate entire cities with native plant and animal life, thus achieving a perfect balance between the organic and architectural elements in them. The concept design features a lightweight canopy covered with plants that stretches through roads and streets.

While the plants purify the air during the day, integrated LED fixtures offer light at night. The self-sufficient system also comes with an underground water tank and a series of irrigation tubes that supply water to these plants regularly.

4. Lexington’s Recycled Glass Bottles Bus Stop

Lexington's Recycled Glass Bottles Bus Stop

Ever seen an entire bus stop made of recycled bottles? Take a look at Project Bottleshop, an ambitious project that aims to use nothing but recycled glass from Ale 8 One soft drink bottles to create an entire bus stop.

Low powered LED lights while solar panels attached to the exterior offer ample power for the lights on this structure. The self-sustaining structure remains enclosed inside a safety glass structure for protection against external elements.

5. ATC Wireless Solar Charger Bus stop for E-Buses

ATC Wireless Solar Charger Bus stop for E-Buses

Eco-friendly vehicles have an issue. They would need to move to a docking station, whenever they run out of charge. Therefore, you end up wasting a lot of commuting time in the process. The ATC Solar Curve Bus Stop aims to reduce this hassle. It would let e-buses charge their batteries while stopping at the bus stop.

The bus stop’s design features a curved roof. This roof has solar panels to capture the sun’s heat and convert it into energy. When a bus rolls into the stop and under the roof, it transmits the charge is wirelessly. While the commuters are gettin on or off, it charges automatically.

6. YBR Bus Shelter

YBR Bus Shelter

Made out of iron, the YBR Bus Shelter is a perfectly sustainable and adaptable piece of architecture. You can mold it according to the differing needs of several cities. The design will feature a seating area as well as a kiosk area. This would help in getting information on bus routes, QR codes and bus schedules, etc. As per city requirements, the YBR Bus Shelter can also be integrated with eco resin panels and solar panels to enhance its sustainability.

7. Solar Powered Bus Stops in California

Solar Powered Bus Stops in California

The Sunshine State has more than its fair share of active sustainable projects that help reduce statewide energy costs considerably. The newest addition to this list is the solar powered bus stop which would help otherwise normal bus stops double as miniature power plants.

The bus stop will feature a roof fitted with 1.2 kilowatt solar arrays which would capture the sun’s heat, convert it into usable energy and use the same to power the traffic lights in the area. Excess solar power will be stored on an onsite battery to continue powering the lights as well as the bus stop itself at night.

8. Solar-powered bus stops for an illuminated and well-informed wait

Flexible solar modules illuminate bus stops

This bus stop is illuminated by modules. It uses the internet and keeps informing the passengers waiting there about the transport schedules. This bus stop has been designed and developed by Canadian research engineers from the McMaster University. The stop is run by the flexible solar cell technology.

Due to this technology, now people will not have to wait for the bus in a dark bus stop. The bus stop is fitted with solar cells on the curved roofs of the stop. The stop is equipped with a lighting system, which is energy efficient. It has 720 solar cells. These cells are competent of generating 4.5W of power. The cells store the solar energy during the day and then use it during night. The LEDs are energy efficient and consume vey less energy (600mW). The team who has designed the solar bus stop is now trying to improve this technology so that it works in winters and cloudy days also.

9. Multi-functional solar powered bus stop with user friendly features

Multi-functional solar bus stop

In order to create a solar powered bus stand which will be sustainable, Jae Pyung Lee has designed the Solar Stop. The main objective of this stop is to persuade the eco friendly ambiance and motivate people to choose public transport.

This bus stop also aims at using the public space in a sustained manner. This bus stop will also offer a lot of user friendly features and therefore is termed as multifunctional bus stop, which is solar powered.

The bus stop is equipped with features like LED indicator, street lighting, air sterilizer, Wi-Fi, bill changer, water vending machine, and a charge station. Even though so many facilities will be provided in the bus stop there will be ample circulatory space for people to move around. The design of the stop is simple as well as ergonomic. There would be areas where people will sit and pathways to move around.

10. Solar-powered bus stop that could make you sad when your bus arrives

It is a common phenomenon that people do not like waiting in the bus stops. In order to solve this issue, MIT architects have come up with a bus stop that will be very attractive for the commuters. This will encourage the people to commute by bus and will also keep them in touch with the modern technologies. The name of this bus stop is EyeStop. This bus stop will provide opportunity to the travelers to check their mailboxes, obtain latest weather updates, use the social networking sites, and watch news.

An interactive map will be provided that can be used by the people to plan their bus trips. Along with this the information regarding the buses will be displayed to the commuters. The best part of this bus stop is that it is energy saving. It does not need the electricity from the power grid. It uses the solar energy, which is tapped by the solar panels installed on the roof of the bus stop.

11. Recharging electric buses through solar-powered wireless bus stops

Bus Stop Project by Gavin Harvey

There are cars and buses, which have electrical engines. Gavin Harvey has designed a project, which aims at saving the non renewable resources and thus conserving energy. This is a great step toward solving the problem of global warming as less power will be consumed and solar energy will be used to recharge the electric engine of vehicles at the bus stops. This project is very simple where the energy from the sun is tapped and through wireless mechanism the energy is supplied to the buses, which pass from there.

12. Solar-powered bus stop makes the wait comfortable and green

Sustainable bus stop

It is one of the popular sustainable bus stop concept designs. It has been developed by Johann Paquelier. He aims at making the wait time comfortable and illuminated. The roof of the stop is light weight as it is made from composite materials. The roof has LEDs, which provide power from the solar panels installed on the roof.

The sustainable future of mass transport could be closer than you think

Public transport is better than personal alternatives owing to factors like less pollution, congestion and travel related costs. As such, a lot of focus has been placed on public transport systems of late with extra emphasis placed on how to make these systems more sustainable and eco-friendlier.

This has, in turn, led to the creation of several innovative travel ideas that would most likely change the entire transportation system radically. Accordingly, given below are a few such innovative concepts we can expect to see pretty soon. 

Innovative green transport concepts like sustainable bus stops

1. Evacuated Tube Transport

Evacuated Tube Transport

Imagine traveling from one country to the other in tubes. And imagine traveling at breakneck speeds that will allow you to reach Beijing from New York in just two hours. Touted to be more efficient than electric trains or cars, the Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) system would feature superconducting maglev trains that would operate inside giant tubes, reaching speeds of more than 6500 km/h.

2. Straddling Bus

Straddling Bus

Forget about crowded streets and traffic jams caused by vehicles, buses and trams occupying the same road. The straddling bus is a really cool concept that would allow multiple vehicles to share the same stretch of road simultaneously.

Rolling on stilts installed on the road, the straddling bus would be positioned above the traffic and would ferry passengers between elevated bus stops. The space beneath the bus would remain open for cars and other small vehicles to drive through, thus creating less chaos and disruption to traffic while ferrying a large number of passengers between two locations.

3. Autonomous Cars

Auto-driven cars

Auto-driven cars have been talked about a lot in the past as well. However, they did not show up on the streets till now. The good about a robotic driver is that it is much more efficient than a human driver. It can spot issues from all directions, detect buildings, look out for exit ramps, detect roadblocks and even change speeds as needed with minimal or no human interference.

This would leave little room for errors on the road, thus preventing fatal accidents. Google, Ford and Cadillac have already announced their own versions of the autonomous car, with Google leading the pack with its Lexus RX450h autonomous vehicle.

4. Tubular Rails

Tubular Rails

Heard of a train that actually carries its own tracks? That’s Tubular Rails for you. This futuristic train will feature a track attached to the top of its body. Giant elevated rings with wheels and motors located at close intervals will help the train pass through them effortlessly, reaching speeds of over 240 km/h. The company behind the design claims that these trains would not disrupt existing infrastructure and would incur a production cost of only 40% of that of conventional train networks.

5. Shweeb Mass Transport System

Shweeb Mass Transport System 2

Fancy ditching fuel, gas and even electricity and generating power with your legs to move from one place to another? Then hop onto the Shweeb, a mass transport system that is powered by humans. The monorail system is located in New Zealand and features pods that carry people from one place to another. All you need to do is step into one of these pods and start pedaling. You can easily reach speeds of over 40 km/h. There is no need to worry about the weather elements as you will be safe inside the clear pod which is airy as well as comfortable.

6. Supercavitation Ghost Boat

Supercavitation Ghost Boat

The friction between the bottom of the vessel and the water would force any boat or ship to start slow before picking up speed, leading to the wastage of time and resources. Supercavitation aims to address this concern by creating a layer of gas filled bubbles around the submerged portion of the vessel. These bubbles would reduce the friction between the boat and water by nearly 900 times. This, in turn, would allow the boat to reach very high speeds in a very short interval of time, thus minimizing fuel consumption significantly.

7. Space Elevator

Space Elevator

Consider catching a lift that would take you to a space station outside earth! That’s what the space elevator is designed to do. The basic principle behind this seemingly humungous task involves the use of a tethered cable made of lightweight materials that connects the base station in earth to the space station in orbit. The lift in concern would be able to travel at the speed of standard trains, and would easily transport cargo as well as people between these two places. Definitely a transport system we need to wait for eagerly!

The near future will see several eco-friendly vehicles and transportation systems replacing the traditional ones. From autonomous cars and tubular rails to even a space elevator, these are some of the most remarkable sustainable transportation systems one can possibly expect to see pretty soon.

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