This bus cleans the air as it chugs along
It's called Bluestar and comes with a filter fitted to its top.
Clean vehicles are so yesterday.
A bus that can filter air as it drives was unveiled in Southampton by UK bus and rail operator Go-Ahead yesterday, according to a release on its website.
Called Bluestar, the bus comes with a filter fitted to its roof. The filter is designed to remove and trap ultra-fine particles from the air as the bus moves along, allowing it to blow out cleaner air than what is taken in. Southampton was chosen as a pilot test site for the bus because the World Health Organisation had earlier revealed it to be at its limit of unsafe air pollution, according to the release.
"As the bus removes the ultra fine particles from the air as it travels… it is helping to solve the air quality problems of the city," chief executive of Go-Ahead, David Brown, said in the release.
"The bus will clean the air on its route 1.7 times a year to a height of 10 metres. Imagine the change we could make to air quality if all buses had this technology," he added.
Feasibility studies conducted by the manufacturer of the bus filter had shown that air in the city could be cleaned 2.4 times every year to a height of 10 metres if all buses are fitted with the filters.
If the trial proves to be successful, it could eventually be rolled out to Go-Ahead's entire fleet of over 5,000 buses, Brown told the Guardian.
