Big "Green" Blue Bus of the Future

Icon Bus, by Gabriel Wartofsky

High gas prices, congestion and global warming are three reasons for considering alternative transportation -- from two wheeled vehicles (bicycles, scooters, etc.) to public transit. So Art Center transportation design students have spent several months working with Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus (http://www.bigbluebus.com) staffers to come up with concepts for tomorrow's "green" Blue Buses (http://www.busofthefuture.com). Ideas will go on show at Altcar Expo, a display of alternative fuel vehicles, taking place this weekend at the Santa Monica Civic Center (http://www.altcarexpo.com/).

Green features you'll see in the designs include: Exterior "gills" that clean the surrounding air by breaking down ozone into oxygen; Roof-mounted solar cells that provide energy for interior lighting and climate control; Chameleon panels that change color from white to black depending on energy needs; Self-cleaning paint that saves water and other resources by eliminating daily washings, and more. On Friday, 9/26, at the Civic Center, you can meet the project team, view the designs and attend "Transforming Transit," a symposium about how to better integrate public transit into car-dependent areas. Shown, renderings of three of the designs that will be on show.

Clear Volume, by Mike Peterson

This exhibit caps a month in which LA experienced its terrible Metrolink crash; it saw the reopening -- before time and on budget -- of a new "smart" bridge in Minneapolis in place of the one that collapsed a year ago http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/18/minneapolis.bridge.ap/index.html); and will see the expiration at end of the month of the massive federal highway, transit and highway safety bill. If you want to make your voice felt on public transit priorities, State Senator Barbara Boxer is Chair of the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works that's working on the new bill (http://boxer.senate.gov/). For more on alternative modes of transport being designed at Art Center, listen up to last June's DnA featuring Geoff Wardle, Director of Advanced Mobilty Research at the school and one of the brains behind the Big Blue Bus of the Future project. (http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/de/de080617one-seaters_two-whee)

Rendering of Cougar, by Giuseppe Filippone