I will discuss recent results from the Galaxy Zoo project which use
visual identifications of bars in disk galaxies (provided by members
of the public through the Galaxy Zoo website). In this work (Masters
et al. 2011, MNRAS in press) we show that the fraction of strong (or
obvious) bars in nearby disk galaxies increase dramatically as the
galaxies become redder. The extreme of this population are the Galaxy
Zoo red spirals (Masters et al. 2010) which are as red and passive as
most ellipticals -  and almost all have bars.

In this talk I will discuss the role bars have on the evolution of a
disk galaxy. I will question if the bar itself can be responsible for
the cessation of star formation in spirals (through it's ability to
move gas, stars and dark matter radially), or if bars are just
important side effects to an external processes which turn spirals
red.

Finally, I will argue (using recent results at many redshifts) that
red spirals are not just an unusual subset of disk galaxies of
interest as a "curiosity", but that they represent an important
evolutionary stepping stone.  I will show that most disk galaxies may
pass through a red spiral phase as they evolve  from the blue cloud to
the red sequence, and suggest that bars are intimately connected to
this transformation.