16th and V Street NW bus shelter by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

DC has a legal maximum of 788 bus shelters — meaning only around 25% of its over 3,000 Metrobus stops can have a shelter. This contractual (not statutory) limit, the result of archaic agreements, coupled with the way shelters have been placed over the years, means that wealthier, whiter, and less transit-dependent communities are more likely to have bus shelters. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Bus shelters, while maybe less sexy of a topic than bus lanes or electric buses, are critical to supporting existing ridership and attracting new riders to the bus. Shelters allow riders to rest and stay protected from the elements, including direct sunlight, which is especially important in the urban heat islands across DC. The District’s own “Keep Cool DC” plan to tackle urban heat islands touts bus shelters as a solution to protect riders from extreme heat.

Our current predicament

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) manages bus shelters through a 20-year franchise agreement, similar to a public-private partnership, with the outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor (formerly a part of iHeartRadio). The agreement, signed in 2005, delegates the installation, management, and repair of all bus shelters in the District to Clear Channel in exchange for a cut of the revenue from ads shown on the shelters. As of now, that revenue is used to service the District’s general debt and does not go back to infrastructure investments for bus riders. The agreement also creates an artificial maximum, limiting the District to only 788 bus shelters. What this leads to is the status quo: fewer bus shelters than riders need and an inequitable placement of existing shelters that don’t adequately serve riders who need them most.

Map of bus shelters in the heat island near high ridership routes on Bladensburg Road and Benning Road NE. Thick blue lines on the map are MetroBus routes with over 4,500 daily riders, while thin blue lines on the map are MetroBus routes. Blue and green shading indicate cooler temperatures in the urban heat island, while yellow, orange, and red progressively indicate hotter temperatures in the urban heat island.

Map of bus shelters in a much cooler Cathedral Heights and McLean Gardens along lower ridership routes. Thick blue lines on the map are MetroBus routes with over 4,500 daily riders, while thin blue lines on the map are MetroBus routes. Blue and green shading indicate cooler temperatures in the urban heat island, while yellow, orange, and red progressively indicate hotter temperatures in the urban heat island.

Under the current franchise agreement, riders in wealthier, cooler (temperature-wise), less transit-dependent neighborhoods are far more likely to have a bus shelter nearby than those in less wealthy, transit-dependent neighborhoods that experience the worst of the urban heat island effect. For example, someone who rides the N4 bus on Massachusetts Avenue NW in Tenleytown will likely have a bus shelter to wait in, whereas someone who rides the B2 bus on Bladensburg Road NE in Carver-Langston is far less likely to be sheltered from the elements. That is despite the B2 having six times more riders than the N4 and ranking as the fourth highest-ridership bus route in DC.

Bus shelters are also a critical safeguard for some of the most vulnerable bus riders: seniors. Seniors, especially those with health conditions, are more likely to benefit from the protection of a bus shelter as one of the groups most susceptible to health risks from exposure to extreme heat. In addition to just protecting from heat, bus shelters and benches designed for comfort offer a respite for seniors and riders with disabilities who need to rest when waiting for a bus, ensuring the bus system is accessible to all.

Bus shelters are not a panacea for tackling the urban heat island, but they do provide a measure of protection — especially from direct sunlight. Recent innovations in shelters have added green roofs, further enhancing their cooling capacity through evaporative cooling. Other District agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) and the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), are addressing this by applying for federal funding to build trial versions of bus shelters that can better cool down a bus stop and protect users against extreme heat. District leaders and agency staff should keep this experiment in mind as we consider purchasing new shelters.

What’s next?

All of this is not an insurmountable bureaucratic problem. Bus shelters are a relatively cheap piece of infrastructure that can be mass-produced and also happen to bring in revenue that allows them to pay for themselves and even generate additional revenue for the District.

The current bus shelter franchise agreement expires in December 2025, with a one-year renewal negotiation period that begins at the end of this year. The District is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Clear Channel, its current franchisee, over ad revenue payments Clear Channel had to make during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This legal battle seems to have led agency leaders to stay quiet on the future of bus shelters and is just another sign that it is time for the District to rethink its approach to bus shelters to one that doesn’t include Clear Channel. DDOT risks perpetuating bus shelter inequities—and by extension health and climate inequities—if it decides to renew the franchise agreement with Clear Channel.

A new way forward

Los Angeles, infamously known for “La Sombrita,” may have redeemed itself and actually offers a good model bus shelter franchise agreement that the District should follow. The city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) will pay for the capital cost of purchasing and installing thousands of new bus shelters, allowing it to prioritize serving residents equitably, while its franchisee will maintain the shelters and operate advertising networks on the shelters. Part of the revenue from that advertising would go back to the city, allowing the city and the LACMTA to cover the original capital costs of installing new shelters while earning a return on their investment.

This relatively simple change to the structure of the agreement can become the norm for bus shelters in the District and the United States. In 2022, the District brought in almost $8.2 million in advertising revenue from its 711 bus shelters, approximately $11,500 per shelter, per year. At that rate, adding an additional 1,000 shelters could bring that total closer to up to $19 million in revenue per year. Changing the agreement would allow the District to expand its bus shelter network — making buses more accessible to riders and making communities more resilient to the negative effects of climate change, all while increasing revenues, something important in a time of tight budgets. Unlike most things in the District’s budget, when it comes to bus shelter equity, DC can have its cake and eat it, too.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the contractual nature of the cap on bus shelters.