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PUBLIC NOTICE | |
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Santa Monica’s Visionary “Bus of the Future” Project Receives High Marks from Transportation Industry If the success of a never-before-tried transit design project can be judged by thousands of visitors, glowing reviews from around the world and overwhelmingly positive feedback from the transportation industry, then the Big Blue Bus and Art Center College of Design's "Bus of the Future" should be considered a colossal hit. Fresh from its successful exhibition at the recent American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Annual Meeting and International Expo in San Diego, the Big Blue Bus will take its visually compelling "Bus of the Future" project to two additional transportation events in California in the next few months to showcase what the future of transit might look like. The original idea for the project came out of the transit agency's 80th anniversary celebration earlier this year amid reflections on what the Big Blue Bus had accomplished, and where public transit needed to go in the future to inspire people to become regular transit riders instead of drivers. Stephanie Negriff, director of transit services for the Big Blue Bus, said the feedback they've received from the transit industry itself has been nothing short of phenomenal. "The comments and high scoring marks from the bus manufacturers who were judges on the project have been extremely enthusiastic," she said. "Many of them have said that increasing the 'Wow' factor, offering expanded features that incorporate how passengers really want to use transit, and continuing to improve sustainable fuel sources are all very viable ways to attract more people to public transportation." Macy Neshati, Vice President of Complete Coach Works and Blue Bird Coachworks, said he was very grateful for the opportunity to be a judge on such an ambitious and forward thinking project. "For us to succeed in stemming the tide of global warming, cleaning up our environment and relieving congestion and gridlock, public transit needs to emerge as the preferred method for people to get around," he said. "Clearly, Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, led by their visionary director Ms. Negriff, understands that imperative and is moving decisively towards those goals." Neshati emphasized that the advanced technologies proposed by the designers was something we might get to see in the near future. "The three finalist designs all showed great promise and were premised on technologies that are emerging or are only years away from commercial viability," he said. "It was very exciting and gratifying to see these talented design students working to integrate these technologies into buses that hopefully are only a few years away from reality." Another judge on the project, Nova Bus Marketing Administrator Caroline Phaneuf, remarked that the concepts submitted by the Art Center designers were refreshing and inspiring. "These designs bring new ideas forward and help us see beyond current industry products," she said. "I hope this competition sparks the interest of people and will bring new talent to the public transit industry." Some of the futuristic design details include "gills" that
clean the air by converting ozone into oxygen, chameleon panels that change
color from absorptive to reflective depending on energy needs, self-cleaning
paint that saves water by reducing the need for daily washings, social
lounges to accommodate longer riding passengers, and roof-mounted solar
cells that provide renewable energy. * Rideability and branding - "Clear Volume" bus Next up for Bus of the Future is the California Transit Association's Public and Community Transportation Conference & Expo in Monterey in early November. The exhibit will then return to Santa Monica where it will be showcased at an American Public Transportation Association general managers meeting in early 2009. "There is a fundamental and positive shift occurring with regards to attitudes about public transit, and this is great to see," said Negriff. "Problems like high gas prices, time lost due to gridlock, global warming and other related issues all clearly point to the need for alternative transportation." "One of the things we hoped for with this project was to capture peoples' imaginations so that they might picture themselves riding one of these sleek and fun buses around town in the not too distant future," said Negriff. "With all the attention Bus of the Future has generated, maybe we'll begin to see some of these innovations roll off the assembly line soon." Geoff Wardle, director of advanced mobility research at Art Center College of Design and the Bus of the Future's project team leader, said he was pleased at the postiive feedback the transit project was receiving from the industry. "Certainly, the enthusiastic reaction that the Bus of the Future project has received from the public, bus operators and bus manufacturers, underlines our belief at Art Center that there is much to do to improve design in the realm of public transportation," he said. "Buses can and should play a significant role in the future of integrated transportation in our current and future cities. However to convince people of that, the experience of using them has to become as sophisticated and appealing as riding in, say, a Lexus, Audi or Lincoln," said Wardle. "For too long, all the passion and energy has been focused on designing
cars. As the car industry morphs into a new and less certain era, my colleagues
and I challenge our young designers to give equal attention to all forms
of transportation. Why should car owners have exclusive rights to the
best design in the world?" |
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