It’s 12:00 noon, and outside the Good Guy Market on 167th Street in the Bronx, more than a dozen people can be seen leaning against the store’s exterior walls. They are not there to buy anything. Under the sign with the name of the store, they try to protect themselves from the scorching sun while they wait for the bus that will take them across the county. The mercury is above 85 degrees. It’s infernally hot, and even though they are a few steps from the bus stop, they prefer to wait there and run when the bus arrives so the sun doesn’t beat down on them so much. The bus station on the corner doesn’t have a shelter or benches where they can wait, trying to get out of the sun’s burning rays. They are all Latinos.
Although the image seems like a simple everyday scene of New Yorkers waiting for transportation, it is also a faithful testimony of a report by the organizations NASA DEVELOP and Transportation Alternatives, which denounce the inconvenience that thousands of users of the Big Apple’s bus system must endure every day when having to wait outdoors without shelters at the stops to protect them from the sun or rain.
Only 20% of New York City bus stops have a shelter. And while it may sound like a coincidence, people who live closest to the hottest bus stops in New York are 56% more likely to be Latino, 24% more likely to be Black, and 40% more likely to be non-white. The Bronx and Queens have the hottest bus stops.
And that is something that Dominican Jasbleidy Suero is clear about. Despite being familiar with the high temperatures of San Pedro de Macorís, in her homeland, she says that every time she has to wait for the bus in the summer, she curses the sun.
“This sun here is worse than the one in the Dominican Republic. At least there you feel the breeze, but here it is a sun that kills you and it mixes with so much humidity. You are waiting for the bus and when you get on you are sweating like a horse,” says the young Latina, who takes the bus every day on 167th Street in the Bronx. “We are sunburned, because we always have to wait a long time and at the stops there are no benches or roofs to protect us. And if it rains it is worse. But that is how it is for us, the poor.”
The report notes that in addition to the lack of shelters for passengers to wait comfortably, what adds fuel to the fire is that New York City has the slowest buses in the country. They warn that wait times often exceed 30 minutes and people who live less than a quarter mile from the most used bus stops are 62% more likely to live below the poverty line.
The seven hottest bus stops are all in the Bronx, with an average temperature 11°F above the city average, and 20°F warmer than the coldest bus stops. Even though that borough is home to only 12% of the city’s bus stops, it has 27% of the hottest bus stops.
Bronx residents ride the bus more than residents of any other borough, and 3 out of 4 bus stops in the borough are hotter than the city average. Overall, the hottest bus stops are significantly less likely (14%) to have shelters than the coolest ones, the report added.
“Politicians always say that New York is the city of opportunities and that here we are all equal, but that is just bullshit. You just have to see what people in the Bronx have to suffer to wait for a damn bus. They take a long time to come and you have to wait with the sun beating down on you,” says Dominican Aneudi de la Cruz. “In Manhattan where all the white people are, you see bus shelters on every corner, but not here. If they really cared about us, they would put more here. There are people with lots of kids and older people who have to put up with that devilish sun.”
The report, titled “Waiting for the Bus in New York City is Hot and Miserable. Here’s Why,” also notes that more than half of the 400 hottest bus stops in the transit system are in Queens, another affected borough. Sixty-seven percent of all bus stops in Queens are hotter than the city average.
And in another complaint, the report reveals that the hottest bus stops have the most ridership and the fewest shelters. They also state that people who live within a quarter mile of the hottest bus stops are 34% more likely to ride the bus than people who live within a quarter mile of the coldest bus stops.
And to make matters worse for bus riders in low-income areas or more vulnerable communities in the Big Apple, researchers who analyzed summer daytime temperature data at bus stops using thermal imaging satellites found that “nowhere in the United States is the urban heat island effect – when limited green space and widespread asphalt trap heat – worse” than in the Big Apple, where heat kills more than 350 New Yorkers each year.
“As summers become hotter, bus stops are an under-recognized source of dangerous heat exposure across all five boroughs. With the slowest buses in the country and wait times often stretching to more than 30 minutes, sweltering bus stops are a critical, overlooked, and increasingly pressing risk factor,” the report warns. “The hottest bus stops are 14.5°F hotter than the coolest, and are more likely to be located in Black, Latino, Asian, and high-poverty communities, in Queens and the Bronx, and in communities with the most bus ridership.”
Unlike residents in areas with shelter-less stops, the researchers added that cooler bus stops are more likely to have a bus shelter and be located near street trees, green space, or water, and that white people do not experience as much distress at bus stops. “While roughly the same number of residents live near the coolest and hottest bus stops, nearly twice as many white residents live near the coolest bus stops than the hottest ones,” they noted.
Elizabeth Adams, interim co-executive director of Transportation Alternatives, stressed that it is not fair that New Yorkers who rely on bus service have to endure the elements of sun and rain while waiting for transportation.
“Amid this summer’s endless heat waves, New York City is forcing millions of its residents to wait for a slow bus in the sweltering heat. This report sheds new light on our city’s staggering misallocation of resources and lack of preparedness for the climate crisis, adding insult to injury and maintaining a deadly status quo around transportation,” said the passenger advocate.
“The data shows, time and time again, that wealthier and whiter communities wait at cooler and safer bus stops. This is a policy option that is entirely solvable, and we look forward to seeing our city leaders make real, tangible changes to protect New Yorkers from excessive heat,” Adams added.
The report’s authors issued a series of recommendations to the Departments of Transportation and the MTA to improve stifling bus stops, including installing bus stops with seating and countdown clocks at all high-priority bus stations by 2025 and reclaiming parking spaces to create a bus zone with room for a bus stop where sidewalks are narrow.
Other suggestions include planting trees around priority bus stops where possible and reclaiming parking spaces to create bus zones with room for multiple trees and maintaining peak hour bus service throughout the day on priority routes on days of extreme heat.
“Bus riders deserve dignity and respect, not extreme heat and dangerous waits for service,” said Jolyse Race, lead organizer for Riders Alliance. “This blockbuster report from Transportation Alternatives and NASA confirms what New York’s two million bus riders know all too well. Our uncovered waits for slow, unreliable buses are dangerous to our health. It is truly outrageous that our leaders subject us to such miserable conditions in a city with 101 billionaires, where most people don’t even drive a car.”
Lisa Daglian, executive director of the MTA’s Standing Citizens Advisory Committee, called on city officials to step up and implement improvements.
“This new report puts the lived experiences of MTA riders into context with the cold, hard facts of the sweaty, hard truth. We urge the City to act quickly to add and improve bus stops across all five boroughs, starting with the 100 bus stops and three bus routes that need priority intervention,” Daglian said. “Bus riders are already eager for slower rides without dedicated bus lanes. They shouldn’t have to wait without a shelter for their ride to arrive.”
Data
- 20% of bus stops only have a shelter
- 56% of people who live closest to the hottest bus stops are Latino
- New York has the slowest buses in the country
- 30 minutes can be the waiting time for a bus
- 62% of those living near bus stops without shelters are more likely to live below the poverty line
- 7 hottest bus stops are located in the Bronx
- 3 out of 4 bus stops in that county are hotter than average
- 67% of all bus stops in Queens are hotter than the city average.
- 350 New Yorkers die in NYC every year from heat