Researchers make troubling discovery about dangerous health issue with bus stops: 'Like an oven'
More than two-thirds of public transit users walk to transit stations, according to the American Public Transportation Association, but extreme temperatures can make getting to these stations difficult.
Shelters at transit stations are designed to protect users from extreme temperatures and weather. However, a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston discovered some of these shelters worsen the problem, increasing temperatures and transit users' risk for heat stress.
The study measured wet bulb globe temperature –– which combines air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation –– in shaded and unshaded areas at bus stops in Houston. While shade reduced WBGT, one type of shelter increased temperatures.
The ground in this type of shelter, when unshaded, was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the ground outside the shelter, the researchers discovered. These types of shelters contained aluminum frames and translucent acrylic walls, which "trapped radiation inside the shelter" and made them "like an oven," researcher Kevin Lanza said, per Phys.org.
Hot temperatures at bus stops increase bus riders' risk for heat stress, which includes "a combination of factors, not just the temperature," according to Lanza, and can develop into life-threatening heat stroke.
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