SAN ANTONIO – With temperatures over 100 degrees for the past week and a half, most people spending time outside are trying to do it in the shade.
But that’s not always possible when you’re waiting for the bus. VIA Metropolitan Transit has 6,100 active bus stops, but less than 38% are sheltered.
While most of the other 3,800 stops aren’t poised to get a shelter anytime soon, VIA and the City of San Antonio are trying to chip away at the gap.
VIA has plans for 150 shelters in its proposed FY 2027 budget, which its trustees still need to approve.
Meanwhile, the city set aside $1 million a few years ago for a pilot program to develop shade options for space-constrained bus stops. It hopes to put that toward an additional 16 shelters in high heat areas.
But will VIA riders ever get to a point where every stop is sheltered?
“Probably not,” VIA Vice President of Engineering Razi Hosseini told KSAT.
“Our goal is, rather than building shelter, improve our frequency. People don’t even have to stay there to wait for the bus,” Hosseini said.
“Some of the area has right-of-way restrictions we couldn’t put,” he said of VIA’s thousands of unsheltered stops, “but if we had funding, we could do more than what we are planning to do.”
VIA prioritizes which stops gets shelters based on how busy they are, how many routes run through them, and if they’re close to things like schools, medical facilities, community centers or grocery stores.
Right now, Hosseini said, 345 locations meet the criteria to get a shelter, though many of them, 151, don’t have the minimum nine feet worth of right-of-way space between the curb and property line to build one.
That’s not a deal breaker, but it means VIA would need to first find a way to get enough space, possibly by getting an easement from the property owner or working with the Public Works Department to reduce the street to make room without reducing traffic flow.
Hosseini said VIA has not selected the exact locations where the 150 shelters would go, but the city has more detailed plans for its projects.
Leslie Antunez, the sustainability officer for the Department of Resilience and Sustainability, presented a map at Thursday’s council committee meeting, showing 13 locations that are moving ahead with the construction process and a handful of others for initial evaluation or backup.
Map of possible new shelter locations under a city pilot project, presented at Aug. 27, 2026 Community Health Committee (City of San Antonio)
The pilot project had been focused on improving the design of existing shelters to prioritize safety and comfort she said, and they paid attention to the orientation, design and materials to help riders beat the heat.
A conceptual design of a shelter showed roof and side panels with holes in them to provide shade and protection from rain while also allowing air circulation.
Conceptual design of a new shelter presented at Aug. 27, 2026 Community Health Committee meeting (City of San Antonio)
Antunez said the city has been working to understand which neighborhoods need the most help or are most impacted by the blazing summer heat, and they used that to identify spots on the VIA network that were missing a bus shelter.
At least one of the city’s proposed sites on Guadalupe Street, which KSAT visited Thursday, was already sheltered by an overhang from a neighboring building, though another by Lanier High School and the San Antonio Natatorium had nowhere to hide from the sun.
“Making sure that if, you know, those five, 10, 15 minutes they are waiting for the bus is a little more comfortable for them is a big — a benefit for us,” she said. “Obviously there’s health issues and concerns that we’re trying to address. And then also, you know again promoting that alternative use of transportation.”
They’re hoping to break ground in September or October, she told KSAT, with nine months to a year’s worth of construction.
While 16 spots is the goal, price changes could mean they’re not able to do as much, or maybe even more.
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