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Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

Volume 140, March 2025, 104653
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

Heat stress mitigation by trees and shelters at bus stops

Author links open overlay panelKevin Lanza ^a, Sara Ernst ^b, Katie 
Watkins ^b, Baojiang Chen ^a
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Abstract

Municipalities are attempting to create safe and comfortable transit
systems in the face of climate change. Herein, we determined how
trees and different shelter designs impact heat stress at bus stops.
Over 13 summer days in 2023, we used sensors to measure wet bulb
globe temperature in the shade from trees and four different shelter
designs to compare with unshaded areas at 17 bus stops in Houston,
Texas. Results from multilevel linear mixed effects modeling revealed
that tree-shaded areas were 3.2 degC (5.8 degF) cooler than unshaded
areas (p < 0.001). Shelters provided less cooling than trees, and
enclosed shelters were less effective than open designs. Further,
heat stress was more than 3 degC (5.4 degF) higher under unshaded,
enclosed shelters than unshaded areas outside of shelters (p 
< 0.001). Tree planting at transit stops may be a top option to
improve heat safety, and shelters, if improperly designed, may be a
form of maladaptation, amplifying health risk.

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Keywords

Shade
Climate change adaptation
Maladaptation
Vegetation
Heat exposure
Climate-resilient transit
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Data availability

The study dataset is publicly available at no cost in the data
repository Figshare: https://figshare.com/s/f73ccff616c01792e589.

Cited by (0)

^
    This article is part of a special issue entitled: 'Mobility &
    Disasters' published in Transportation Research Part D.

(c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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