Staff of Open Access Government writes:

Bee bus stops are to become a new feature around UK cities, as they support wildlife and bees in city areas with their living roofs. As bees have been declining at a fast rate due to climate change, human activity, and pollution, many people have taken up initiatives like living roofs to invite them back into city spaces.

The Wildlife Trusts’ report, Insect Declines and Why They Matter, highlights how we have lost more than 50% of insects since 1970, and showed that 41% of the Earth’s remaining five million insect species are now threatened with extinction.

The new bee bus stops – created in a five-year partnership project between the Wildlife Trusts and Clear Channel – are established green-roofed bus stops across UK cities which aim to provide more to pollinate for insects which have declined in human-dominated spaces.

These living roof bus stops, as well as other urban greening campaigns that the partnership has developed like green street furniture, are to engage the public in rewilding and encourage local councils to make more environmentally conscious choices.

Ready to take bee bus stops to even more locations across the UK. The partnership aims to install over 150 of the bee bus stops across the country by the end of 2022, with over 40 already in place from as far north as Glasgow, and down to Brighton on the south coast. As urban biodiversity becomes increasingly critical, Clear Channel’s living roofs have already been carefully assessed for their wildlife credentials by The Wildlife Trusts and classified as having “High Strategic Significance.”

Local Authorities will also have expert guidance from their local Wildlife Trusts to place the transport living roofs in locations that will have the biggest positive impact on wildlife.

Making cities greener, healthier and more biodiverse

Living Roofs, affectionally nicknamed ‘Bee Bus Stops’, have been specially designed in partnership with expert ecologists to support native biodiversity, help create healthier local communities, and bring greenery back into urban areas. (Clear Channel Living Roofs)

Bus stop green roofs provide a route to sustainable ambitions

Bridgman & Bridgman has installed green roofs on 15 bus stop shelters in Milton Keynes, “providing a habitat for many small pollinating creatures, and improving biodiversity” – working with living roof designer Dusty Gedge of the Green Infrastructure Consultancy.

Image Credit: Bridgman & Bridgman

Milton Keynes Council is investing a proposed £2 million to upgrade hundreds of bus shelters over the next few years. The initiative follows on from a new living green bus shelters project announced last year shelters capable of extracting harmful carbon emissions installed across MK. Living green rooftops packed with Sedum plants which provide the perfect habitat for bees, bugs and butterflies, were installed at 30 busy MK bus shelters to help support biodiversity and reduce vehicle pollution.

Kent County Council has issued “SC22136 – Living Roof Bus Shelter and Real Time Information (RTI) Display Services” on the Kent Business Portal.

Other UK cities:

• Buzz Stop in Butlersbridge
• Derby buzzing about new Bee Bus Stops
• Bus shelters get a green makeover in Franklin County
• Hull: Experimental ‘bee bus stops’ planned for city
• Leicester Is Turning All of Its Bus Stops Into Green Roof Pollinator Gardens for Bees
• Peacehaven bus shelter with Sedum roof to help emissions
• Portsmouth bus stops will become ‘living roofs’ with grass and plants
• ‘Living roof’ eco-bus shelters will make Sidmouth a greener town
• First of Many ‘Bee Bus Stops’ Being Built in Sunderland

Green-roofed bus shelters in Utrecht

The city of Utrecht has completed the wide-scale installation of green roofs on its bus stops. Green roofs capture particulates, store rainwater, provide cooling when it’s hot and promote urban biodiversity. All of these are beneficial for insects like bees, bumblebees and butterflies.

In Utrecht they opt for healthy growth, for healthy happy residents in an attractive and economically strong city. They work together with everyone who wants to contribute to solutions for a healthy life in an urban environment. They experiment and convert ideas into results with impact, results that contribute to a healthy living in the Utrecht region and beyond.

The city has 316 bus stops with a sedum-covered roof, as of 2019. The bus stops contribute to a healthy living environment in the city, and they help raise awareness. The sedum-covered roofs benefit all—the residents—but they also help the small animals who call the city their home. Birds and insects are drawn to and delight in green roofs.

Green bus stops in Haarlem help stimulate urban ecology and biodiversity

A series of bus stops in Haarlem have been fitted with green roofs, installed by JCDecaux. JCDecaux, the global market leader in outdoor advertising and urban furniture, has been working with green roof specialists Mobilane to give the bus stops a natural planted roof covering. Designed using MobiRoof, the ready-to-use extensive green roof system, consisting of cassettes containing 6-8 different types of succulents, this is another successful green roof bus shelter project following in the footsteps of other installations in Utrecht, Gouda, Apeldoorn, Woerden, Leipzig (Germany), Helsingborg (Sweden) and Malmö (Sweden).

Philly’s First Bus Shelter Green Roof

As part of its Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters plan, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) has commissioned Roofmeadow (President and Founder Charlie Miller, P.E. – as shown on the right) to create a deployable prefab bus shelter green roof kit. With much fanfare, the first small but highly visible 60 sf prototype was installed at a bus shelter across the street from City Hall on June 15, 2011.

The bus shelter green roof was constructed using pre-grown mats and are made up of drought tolerant succulents (primarily Sedum species) and allow for an instant cover of vegetation. You may also notice flowering Dianthus (also known as Sweet William or Wild carnation) and Portulaca poking through at two of the four corners where the growing media increases to 6.00 inches. Signage will direct people to the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds “Green Roof Bus Shelter” website with more information about things residents can do.

Read more: ‘Bee bus stops’ with living roofs can improve city wildlife