Design group to donate bus shelters to MARTA ATLANTA, GA. (WABE) - There are 11,000 MARTA bus stops in metro Atlanta without shelters to protect riders from the weather. Now a nonprofit has offered to design and build shelters for the transit agency for free.

Ever see people waiting at a MARTA bus stop during a storm without anywhere to go to shield themselves from the rain?

Such a scene inspired Architecture for Humanity to launch a MARTA bus stop design contest. Rick Glassman is the group's chairman.

"It was the middle of August and it had just rained and people were sitting on the wet grass with groceries and nowhere to go," Glassman said.

Architecture for Humanity plans to build three shelters later this year at stops in southeast Atlanta.

Every little bit helps, says Tony Griffin with MARTA. The agency would like to install shelters at 1,500 stops whose ridership is high enough. But Griffin says there's just one problem.

"Budget. It's that simple," Griffin said. "And the current economy doesn't help."

Glassman's group begins collecting design entries this month. The deadline is June 30. For more information, contact Rick Glassman at rick@afhatlanta.org.


For WABE News, I'm Jeanne Bonner.


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