Madrid’s ‘Garden Buses’ Are Genuinely ‘Green’!

Do you think our Delhi is the only city reeling under excessive air pollution? Well, almost every cities across the globe are facing severe hardships out of poor air quality and particulate matter-induced smog. Spanish capital city Madrid has ordered a half of private cars off the road by bringing in an odd-even rationing scheme (similar to what was experimented in Delhi) from the last week of December to fight air pollution in city spaces.

Madrid has also put forth an innovative way to tackle CO2 emission – growing gardens atop city buses, hoping that plants will help soak some amount of carbon emissions. The city’s administration is implementing a project named “move in green” that installs roof-top garden patches on city buses, made of metallic meshes and sedum or other plants used in rooftop gardening atop houses popular in western countries. Bus shelters are not spared either.

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Sophisticated water proofing and sustainable materials are used in this project, so that there is no leakage of water or slushy mud into the bus’s cabin. They should also withstand movement and jolting of buses. It costs around 2,500 Euros (aprox. INR 1.77 Lakhs!!) to install gardening on a single bus, hinting at its undesirable cost-viability in developing countries like India. Moreover, this gardening patch is unlikely to withstand the tropical weather conditions of our country, coupled with periodic maintenance woes.

The city has also announced that diesel cars will be completely banned from its spaces entirely within ten years.

Also Read: Trucks – Europe’s Roadmap To Double Annual CO2 Reduction Rate

Next, would you like to read more on Sustainable Mobility? 

H/T Motor1.com | Video Courtesy: Xavier Sànchez Youtube Channel