Hot Stops: How Houston Bus Stops Get Dangerously Hot cover art

Hot Stops: How Houston Bus Stops Get Dangerously Hot

Hot Stops: How Houston Bus Stops Get Dangerously Hot

Written by: Houston Public Media
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 “It’s like a sweat box,” “an easy bake oven,” “it’s like a desert.” This is how METRO riders described Houston bus stops to Sara Willa Ernst and Katie Watkins at the beginning of the summer. This left them wondering just how hot these bus stops can get. No data on the subject exists, so they armed themselves with sunscreen, baseball hats, and a high-tech thermometer and headed to the bus stop to get answers for themselves. What they found lined up with the stories they had heard: dangerously hot temperatures that experts found alarming. Their reporting led them to learn about riders getting sick from the heat and a public transit system ill-prepared to protect its riders from rising temperatures brought by climate change.℗ & © 2026 Houston Public Media Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Bonus Episode: Will something get done?

    Bonus Episode: Will something get done?
    Sep 28 2023
    In this bonus episode, officials, local advocates and bus riders react to our investigation into the impact of extreme heat on METRO riders in Houston. We hear how one county precinct may use our findings to inform their tree planting strategy and bus shelter redesign in Southwest Houston.

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    10 mins
  • 3: Trees and the Breeze

    3: Trees and the Breeze
    Sep 21 2023
    Tree shade was twice as effective at cooling riders as bus shelters. That’s what Sara and Katie observed while spending three weeks at Houston bus stops this summer and authoring a pilot study. The two reporters now dig into the pathway -- and the obstacles it's dotted with -- to planting those trees near bus stops and what to do when that simply isn’t an option.
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    22 mins
  • 2: A Science Experiment

    2: A Science Experiment
    Sep 14 2023

    Sara and Katie visit two dozen bus stops across Houston with their high-tech equipment, garnering lots of strange looks and questions from METRO riders, passing cars and bus drivers. They let riders know the question on their minds: just how hot do bus stops get during the never-ending heatwave in Houston this summer? What they found were some extremely hot stops and a budding friendship between two coworkers.

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    23 mins
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