Cooling the Line: buses, heat and an intervention
into creating new maps of shelter in Los Angeles.

Cooling the Line centers on human exposure to heat and sun in the urban environment of Los Angeles, as the heat is slowly evaporating our life from us. In the tradition of the Situationists, I am invested in human geography and seek to subvert, disrupt, and reimagine the systems that govern everyday life in our city.

This new project is political, environmental, and physiological as well as aesthetic and very personal. I have lived in LA for four years without a car. I believe in public transport and ride the bus everywhere. From home to my studio and back, Echo Park to Silver Lake, to my jobs in Culver City and DTLA, to markets across the city, where I sell my prints on the weekends. This means long waits at bus stops, long rides, missed connections, and long walks from bus stops to destinations. The majority of the bus stops along the 4 route do not have any form of shelter, and shelter that is provided lacks adequate shade. In summer I find myself hiding in the shade of nearby fences, power poles or trash cans. The city recently announced a $30 million investment in shade-providing bus-stop shelters over the next four years but I fear change won’t come soon. Cooling the Line will reflect this situation while alerting commuters to action they can take to protect themselves from the increasing intensity of the sun. In the process, the recording of this project will include journaling mapping my movements, recording public interaction, and capturing heat data.

Project Collaborators
Rafa Cardenas - photography
RBHU Engineering - cart fabrication
The Print Shop LA, - printing poster
Sydney Urban Crew, Art & Data Club - peer support
LA Metro - permission / support

CART & POSTERS

COOLING CART

September 2023. Concept for cooling street cart, with UV safe umbrellas to give away, a UV safe umbrella for me to stand under.

Each trip: Need to carry 10-15 UV umbrellas & posters to give away to bus commuters

About the project here. Riding the bus line, walking in the sun.

WENDY MURRAY
PREVIOUS PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
New Views Poster Project, 2020-21 (AUS)
The Poster Centre 2019/2022 (AUS)

Collaborators

Rafael Cardenas has always been driven by the creative process that fueled him through decades of artistic vacillation. From poetry to hip hop lyricist, theater actor to film, he has refined his love for the importance of living in the moment. Currently, his life of observation/creation has inspired him to document the “moment” through the lens. His photography embodies all the modes of artistic expression he has lived through, combined with the life experience of the neighborhood that molded him. In his work you can find narrative, poetry, theater, and the drama that all those practices cultivate.

Sydney Urban Crew >

RESEARCH

HEAt islands

Urban Heat Island effect:
 For many California cities, extreme heat days – daily high temperatures that used to occur about four times a summer – will occur 40 to 70 days during the summer by 2050, according to an analysis based on Cal-Adapt data. Link →

ECOSTRESS DATA
To begin to understand what these changes could mean across the greater Los Angeles area, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California mapped how extreme heat and humidity patterns vary with regional geography. The results underscore how air temperature alone does not tell the full story of dangerous heat. ECOSTRESS DATA →

WHO HAS NOTICED?

List of organizations addressing/related to heat stress in Los Angeles:
Angelenos for green schools →
Sweltering Cities →
MudTown Farms →
Climate Actin LA →

PAVEMENT HEAT/COOLING

Urban-Scale Evaluation of Cool Pavement Impacts →
San Antonio Pavement Cooling Project →

SMOG/UV/OZONE in LA

Can the smog be protecting us?
How smog is harmful >

SHELTER

More than 75% of bus stops in the city of Los Angeles have no shelter.

give me shelter

In the early mornings, if someone isn’t sleeping on the bus stop bench, I can sit in the shade. But by mid-morning, it’s a perilous situation to avoid the sun—I wedge myself between the pole and the curb—facing the oncoming traffic on Sunset. In the late afternoon, I stand awkwardly to fit within the sliver of thin shadow cast by the streetlight, or I huddle way too close to a rancid black trash can.. link →

NEW BUS STOPS in 2024
LA County has a $30M plan to replace and add bus shelters. These new bus stops provide little shelter.
Question: Do the folks who design these bus stops ever ride the bus?! I don’t know about other commuters, but I don’t want wi-fi - I want shelter and buses that run on time!!
Link to LA Dot article →
News article about new bus stops, with interviews →

SOLUTIONS/IDEAS TREES

• MORE TREE’S EVEN IF IT COSTS US IN WATER.. some folks think planting more trees is the answer.

• LA Country tree survey and management data. Super interesting data around how many trees are in LA county.

• LA trees are dying - planted in 1932, they live 100 years… this article >

BOOKS

Jeff Goodell, The Heat Will Kill Your First (ordered with Stories last week. Should arrive this week)