Robin Morris: Bus shelters must be functional, not pretty

Regarding the Nov. 20 news article “Raleigh wants residents’ input on 3 bus shelter designs”: I applaud GoRaleigh for its plan to build more bus shelters, but I wonder how many actual bus users will see and vote on the prototypes displayed at the Contemporary Art Museum. Why not move the models six blocks east to Moore Square, where hundreds of riders change buses every day?

The article focused on the artistic vision behind each design, leaving me wondering how much consideration was given to function. Creativity is all well and good, but as a sometimes bus rider, I’m more interested in whether a shelter keeps the sun and rain off my head and has ample space on the bench than whether it resembles the GoTriangle emblem or a crepe myrtle tree.

The current shelters perform just fine, so I hope the quest for a distinctive design doesn’t give us structures that don’t do the job as well. The people whose input should matter the most are the people who will use the shelters.

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Robin Morris: Bus shelters must be functional, not pretty."