Taking the bus should be simple. With over nine thousand bus stops in Houston, you should be able to find one, hop on and get there. But in Houston, heat can turn a simple trip into an odyssey. In this first episode of Hot Stops, we uncover 911 heat-related calls from bus stops and learn how time in the heat can add up, causing some to suffer from heat illness and pass.

1: In the Heat of the Bus Stop

&#8220;It&#8217;s like a sweat box,&#8221; &#8220;an easy bake oven,&#8221; &#8220;it&#8217;s like a desert.&#8221; 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.

Society & Culture

News

Government

“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.

Share 1: In the Heat of the Bus Stop

Sign up to save your podcasts

1: In the Heat of the Bus Stop

1: In the Heat of the Bus Stop