UES Bus Stops Among City’s Hottest: Study

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY – Stuck in the sun while waiting for the bus on the Upper East Side? The neighborhood’s stops are among the city’s hottest, according to a new study from Transportation Alternatives.

Citywide, only one in three stops is currently shaded, the study found, and only one in five stops has a shelter.

Although these stops are more likely to be located in high-poverty areas, a significant number of hot stops are located on the Upper East Side, especially along avenues east of Park: Lexington, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and York.

Crosstown stops along 72nd, 79th, 86th, and 96th Streets are also hot.

How hot is your stop? An interactive map is available here.

City Council District 5, which covers most of the neighborhood east of 3rd Avenue, as well as Carnegie Hill, is “the 5th worst council district in all of New York City for permeable surface area, which means that basically the entire area is paved asphalt or buildings,” a Transportation Alternative spokesperson told Patch.

“It's also the 4th worst council district for traffic volume. While heat and the heat at bus stops is a multi-pronged issue, the excessive amount of asphalt, dearth of parkland, and constant traffic in the area is definitely going to make it hotter, and hotter for New Yorkers waiting for a less reliable bus because of all of the traffic.”

Transportation Alternatives worked with the NASA DEVELOP Environmental Justice team to measure summer daytime temperature data at bus stops across the city using thermal heat imaging satellites. The hottest stops are as much as 14.5 degrees hotter than the coolest, they
found.

Heat kills an estimated 350 New Yorkers every summer, according to NYC Health.