The Canary Project

Duv-Tal: Changing the Image of Public Transportation

Ed Morris

Categories: Solutions

Sep 18, 2008 05:20 am 1 Comment

First of all sorry for the long absence!  We have been crazy moving from New York to Boston and starting our time as Loeb Fellows at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  But we are back in Changents Land.  Over the next couple weeks we will be featuring some cool projects that people have written to me about.  Some of these came through the Changents network and so are especially cool.

The first project I want to tell you about is from Catherine Blackwell Pena.

Several weeks ago Catherine contact me about her work and I want to share it with you all as it shares some common objectives with our Green Patriot Posters campaign.  (See pics here).

Catherine begins with the premise that we need to valorize taking public transportation.   (The same premise that was the foundation of Michael Bierut’s designs for Green Patriot Posters).

Catherine then designs inexpensive, unobtrusive seats at bus stops in Memphis.  So that bus riders can have the dignity of sitting while they wait for a bus.  The seat itself contains the message:

You are a role model.
You are actively improving the environment by riding the bus.

The project is called Duv-Tal.  Check it out on Catherine’e blog for more.

Changing the image of sustainability is very important.  Seeing it as heroic instead of something you just have to do to “save the planet” is crucial!  (What does “save the planet” mean anyway?)

 

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