With no bus shelter or tree cover nearby, the tanned 67-year-old is resigned each day to sweating on a concrete curb as the elements beat down on him.
“Every now and then, the bus is about 10 or 20 minutes late,” Snyder said. “When it’s this hot, you’re just stuck out here. There’s nowhere to go.”
In Harris County’s hottest neighborhoods, where land surface temperatures routinely surpass 90 degrees in the summer, riders routinely wait for buses under the scorching sun with no shelter, according to an analysis by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Center for Housing and Neighborhoods.
About 500 unsheltered Metro bus stops are located in neighborhoods that recorded land surface temperatures in the top 10% of Harris County during a snapshot last summer, the analysis showed. The largest concentration of stops was in Gulfton, Uptown, Greater East End, Near Northside and northern Spring Branch.
A study led by UTHealth Houston researchers earlier this year found the shade provided by bus shelters reduced temperatures by 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit during a two-week summer stretch. However, shelters amplified the heat by 5 degrees in spots where the structure didn’t provide shade.
Debolina Banerjee, a Kinder Institute research analyst who compiled and produced the bus data for its study, said the lack of cooling shelter can impact Houstonians’ health and commuting behavior.
“Commuters waiting in an unsheltered bus stop experience this heat — and the potential risks of fatigue, dehydration, heat stroke and, in some cases, death — daily,” Banerjee said. “Research also shows heat causes a decrease in transit use and walking.”
Metro, which provides bus and other transit services throughout Harris County, is governed by a nine-member board of directors appointed by county commissioners, the city of Houston’s mayor and 14 other municipal mayors.
In a statement, Metro Director of Service Enhancements Kenneth Brown said some bus stops can’t accommodate a shelter, shade or a cooling area, largely due to space or property rights issues. But Brown added that cost is also an issue for the organization, which draws on sales taxes and grants for nearly all of its $1.3 billion-plus in annual revenue.
“The cost of outfitting every stop with a heat mitigation feature is not financially feasible,” Brown said. “The ongoing maintenance and cleaning requirements would also place a significant burden on the agency’s resources.”
‘Picture of the extreme heat’
As part of its annual State of Housing report, the Center for Housing and Neighborhoods focused this year on climate extremes faced by Harris County residents, including commuters.
To understand heat and bus stop conditions, Banerjee mapped land surface temperatures using satellite imageries collected over two days in mid-September 2024, then overlaid the map with bus stop locations and shelter data collected from Metro’s website.
Banerjee found 675 unsheltered stops in locations with recorded land surface temperatures of 89.1 to 94.1 degrees, which ranked in the top 10% of the county.
Rice Fondren Library GIS/Data Center staff and students then assisted by using Google Maps’ Street View function to verify the accuracy of Metro’s shelter data, ultimately finding about 100 stops had cover or no longer existed.
“Put plainly, this paints a picture of the extreme heat exposure an average commuter faces in their daily transit,” Banerjee said.
While it’s unclear how many people became sick as a result of heat at bus stops, Harris County Public Health tracked about 7,600 people with reported heat-related illnesses between 2019 and 2023.
The Metro outlook
Brown said Metro has put greater emphasis on bus stop shelter over the past few years.
In 2023, it established criteria for prioritizing new shelters. It now considers the size of ridership, the number of older adults and individuals with disabilities, and proximity to landmarks, among other factors. (Heat is not considered.)
Metro has added about 1,000 shelters in the past year, bringing the total share of unsheltered stops down to 64%, and plans to install or replace 2,000 more sheltered bus stops by 2026, Brown said.
The agency is also testing a new perforated mesh shelter meant to reduce heat at 17 stops in Gulfton, with plans to expand the pilot program.
Still, logistical and financial challenges remain.
Brown said many bus stops were placed decades ago at locations without enough space for shelters that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, an issue the organization is “actively working” to address.
In other cases, property owners aren’t willing to offer land needed for shelters or the structures will cause dangerous line-of-sight issues.
And while Metro’s budget tops $1 billion, agency leaders say the price of new shelters (about $15,000), annual maintenance ($2,500) and routine replacement (every 15 years) quickly add up.
