City of Phoenix

Old (left) and new Phoenix bus shelters.

More shade is making its way to bus stops across Phoenix. KJZZ Listener Debra Traylor asked about the new shelters through our reporting project, Q&AZ.

Phoenix voters approved a transportation tax that went into effect in 2016. 

Part of that tax money is helping refurbish or replace existing bus stop shelters to make them more hospitable. The first year of the tax being in effect was spent designing and choosing the right look for the new bus stops.

“We are ramping up, as we say, and we’re very excited about this because it gives us something new and different, and the color was one thing that was different,” Joe Bowar, Phoenix's public transit deputy director of facilities, said.

The new steel bus stops will be brown instead of a sandy pink. The other options were silver or turquoise. There are several new designs, with more shade and some made by Arizona State University interns.

There are about 4,000 bus stops in Phoenix. New shelters cost about $10,000 each.

The older ones are getting replaced with 30 percent more shade.

“Any bus stop that does not have a shelter would get a new shelter and that would be based on the ridership at that bus stop," Bowar said. "And then for our older ones we look at them on a case by case, when the structure itself is in need of repair.”

Bowar says about 200 new bus stops have gone up so far.

The bus stops that were replaced will be salvaged for metal. The new bus stops also have solar lighting installed.