Dutch city transforms bus stops with bee-friendly green roofs

The Netherlands is home to urban innovations like 3D-printed concrete houses and self-healing roads. Now it can add apiary bus stops to its resume. City officials in Utrecht are looking to bolster local bee health by turning the tops of its bus stops into greenery-filled homes for bees.

Working with Clear Channel, the city outfitted the roofs of more than 300 open-air bus stops with flowering succulent plants that spring up from the metal shelters and attract pollinators like a beacon of safety. The addition is part of the city’s larger effort to go green (it claims the roofs also store rainwater and capture fine dust).

According to My Modern Met, the city has pledged for its transportation systems to be carbon neutral by 2028 and is introducing 55 electric buses into its fleet by the end of this year. In case you were worried about the rest of the bus stop’s footprint, rest assured—the shelters use low-energy LEDs and employ sustainable bamboo benches.