Virginia Tech gets its first solar-powered bus shelter
The Virginia Tech campus now has its first solar-powered bus shelter.
That shelter, located on Drillfield Drive in front of Torgersen Hall, is the first shelter of its kind installed on a Blacksburg Transit route.
The 12-foot shelter, purchased from Tolar Manufacturing Company Inc. in Corona, Calif, is equipped with a solar light bar. A solar array re-charges the battery each day replacing energy that was used during the previous evening, and includes a reserve to provide regular illumination even during raining or cloudy weather.
Debby Freed, alternative transportation manager at Virginia Tech, is working with university staff and Blacksburg Transit to bring more solar powered shelters to campus.
“We’re excited about the potential for solar-powered bus shelters because they provide an additional, sustainable option for providing interior lighting in bus shelters,” said Freed. “This also falls in line with the university’s and the Town of Blacksburg’s desire to support sustainability efforts in the region.”
Blacksburg Transit is working to improve its shelters along all of its routes.
For information about alternative transportation options at Virginia Tech, visit the Parking and Transportation website.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
Ken Tucker at Blacksburg Transit contributed to this story.
