Future bus
shelters to offer riders
more protection

But a councilman says the
49 newest shelters also
need to be redone

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The next series of city bus shelters will have modifications that will better protect passengers from rain and sunshine, transportation officials say.

But Councilman Andy Mirikitani, chairman of the Council Transportation Committee, said the shelters should have been better planned in the first place and wants current ones retrofitted.

A number of TheBus passengers have complained that the 49 shelters put up in recent months are badly designed, lacking proper protection from the elements.

The shelters cost $7,000 to $9,000 each, depending on their size.

At the two new shelters on Alapai Street yesterday, the issue was the afternoon sun.

"The sun really shines on you," said Delia Barroga, 35, as she sat on a bench waiting for a bus home to Waikele.

Several passengers said they stand on the other side of the shelters to block the sun.

The second installment of shelters will have some modifications that should address those problems, said Paul Steffens, executive director of the Public Transit Division.

"The roof will have not quite as straight a slope to it," Steffens said. "There will be a lift on the edge so that water doesn't come straight down but goes off on the sides ... kind of like a gutter."

The changed design won't cost extra money, he said.

"You build a car and see how it runs and you make modifications to it," he said.

Transportation officials don't consider the modification a minor one, and there are no plans to retrofit the 49 recently installed shelters.

Mirikitani said the recently installed shelters are "defective" and should have been more carefully designed.

"The aesthetics should not have been the higher priority," he said. "The top priority should have been the function."

Some complaints have come into his office about how "water is now just pouring down like a sheet on passengers," he said.

Mirikitani also criticized the new design for reducing the available bench space in the shelters, a complaint also raised by TheBus riders yesterday.

Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon said Mirikitani's criticism is unjustified.

"It's unfair," she said. "We were really trying to come up with something innovative."

The goal of the new shelters is to be able to fit them at bus stops that have been too small for other designs, she said.

The department also wants a uniform design for future shelters. About 200 more shelters are expected to be constructed in the next few months, Steffens said.

Complaints have come in regarding the design on previous shelters, Soon said.

"We used to get complaints that (walled, Plexiglas shelters) were too hot and had no ventilation."

Not all passengers were unhappy.

"I think they're a good idea," said Scott Kaneshiro, a 25-year-old university student.

"It helps out a whole lot when it's raining," he said. "Some people just complain too much."