Green roofs for bus and tram stops

Idea

The bus and tram stops in Helsinki are often boring and uncomfortable places to wait, even though they have the potential to be much better. One of the first steps that can be taken to make a more comfortable place to wait are to add green roofs to the stops themselves. Several cities, for example Utrecht and The Hague in the Netherlands, have already started pilots and implementing such green roofs.

Although the dimensions of the new green surface is small, within a bigger network or in combination with addition of more vegetation in the area they can be of importance. Benefits include the retention of storm water, the cooling function of the vegetation, and the symbolic value they contain to raise awareness for the importance of (meadow) vegetation in Helsinki.

A further step could be to improve or add extra vegetation to the bus and tram stops, or to combine the green roofs with solar energy.