New York City Bus Serves as Home to Green Roof Design

NEW YORK — By now most people have seen or at least heard of a green roof. The sustainable installation’s popularity is increasing throughout the country, especially in heavily populated cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Just as we were starting to become familiar with the concept of a green roof, a new idea will change the way we think about its design.

New York University graduate student Marco Antonio Castro Cosio, has developed a project for his thesis, known as Bus Roots. Bus Roots is a program designed to include a living garden planted on the roofs of city buses. The idea stemmed from the traditional green roof — but with this creation, sustainability can be transported through the streets of New York City everyday.

The project aims to take advantage of the large space on top of city buses. While the sides have been filled with advertisements, the tops of buses are mostly forgotten. A prototype of the mobile green roof has been installed on the top of the BioBus, which will act as the first bus with an extensive green roof system. The green roof has been growing for five months, travelling around New York City and as far as Ohio.

Although the idea of a green roof on top of a city bus has not been implemented anywhere else in the country, there have been mobile gardens planted on top of trucks and trains and recently on top of a bus stop in Buffalo, N.Y. Funding for the roofs was not disclosed, but the benefits are substantial.

By implementing a green roof system on a city bus it is set to add aesthetic value; mitigation of urban heat island effect; acoustical and thermal insulation; storm water reduction and management; carbon dioxide absorption; habitat restoration; public education and recreation; and reclaiming forgotten real estate atop of city buses.

The project is currently only taking place in an experimental fashion, but Cosio estimates that the Bus Roots program can add to the city’s green building initiatives.

Each bus that is part of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in New York has approximately 340 square feet of roof space. The roof space is also flat and exposed to direct sunlight throughout the day — perfect for a green roof installation. MTA has nearly 4,500 buses in operation to date.

“If a garden were planted on the roof of every one of the 4,500 buses in the city’s bus fleet, Bus Roots could add 35 acres of new rolling green space in the city,” said Cosio in a statement.

The design has already sparked interest and was the first runner-up in the Designwala Grand Idea Competition. The focus on nomadic agriculture has helped Cosio get his idea across in a practical way. A lot of research went into the design of the garden on top of the BioBus. The bus uses felt as a growing medium for its plants and sedums — the sturdiest plants used in green roofs.

Sedums are used in high-rise buildings for their long drought resistance, winter hibernation, low maintenance and their root system. When considering installation on a city bus, roots were a major concern. If plants not intended for green roofs were to be planted the roots could grow into the roof. Since sedum plants have strong roots attached to its growing medium and tend to grow sideways, this lessens the fear of roots growing into the top of the mobile green roofs.

There is still more research to be done, but Cosio is ready to show his design to those interested in the sustainable benefits that the roof could provide. The BioBus is scheduled to be at New York City’s MakerFaire event, September 29, to be part of the over 500 exhibitors that have proven to be leaders in the creative and innovative technology market.