Shelter Accessories Help Provide A Turnkey Bus Stop Solution
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As a provider of a variety of shelter systems, Panel Built, Inc. strives to provide the best service and overall product to our customers. As a part of this, Panel Built has adopted a wide range of transit shelter accessories in order to serve as a one-stop-shop for communities and organizations installing new bus stops. This makes the entire process a much simpler and easier solution for these projects. Operating as a turn-key provider of transit shelters and their accessories, Panel Built ensures your new project is far more manageable, delivered in a timely manner, and produced with high quality.
To accomplish this, Panel Built has incorporated a variety of accessories/options into our shelter projects. These are items that help provide additional benefits for the pedestrians using the system, able to increase the safety, security, and even the Return on Investment of the new Bus Stop. In this post, we will go over some of the different accessories that we provide with our transit shelters and how they can help benefit the shelter project as a whole.
Transit Shelter Lighting Solutions
One of the main objectives of shelter design is ensuring the passengers are safe and comfortable waiting in that area. And one of the primary components of shelter safety is providing a well-lit area in and around the shelter. Panel Built offers a few different shelter lighting solutions in order to help solve this problem.
Interior Shelter Lighting
For our standard interior electrical package, Panel Built utilizes a roof-mounted LED system. This LED system provides a bright, long-lasting light source for the interior of the shelter. With the interior of the bus shelter being well-lit, approaching bus drivers will be able to easily tell if this stop will have passengers waiting to get on. Additionally, LEDs have a much longer lifespan and require minimal maintenance. Therefore, the lights will need to be changed less often, costs less to keep on, and requires minimal upkeep, all of which save money in the long-run.
Exterior Shelter Lighting
Exterior shelter lights help keep the shelter more secure and give the passengers waiting inside peace of mind. When passengers are in the shelter after dark or in the early morning, a lot of the surrounding area outside the shelter can be completely dark if there are no street lights around. Not being able to see their surroundings can be nerve-wracking to pedestrians. This ultimately can make the bus stop an uncomfortable place and can cause people to avoid it. Overall, the combination of interior lighting and exterior security lights helps provide a feeling of safety and security by allowing passengers to see their surroundings and preventing others nearby from hiding in a shadow.
Solar Powered Lighting
Another fantastic option Panel Built can include in our Bus Shelter structures is the ability to have the lighting powered through solar energy! Similar to our Solar Booths, Panel Built can mount solar panels atop the roof of our transit shelter and use that as the primary source of energy for the security lights. Solar-powered lights can be a great feature for bus shelters that are located in more remote areas, far away from a power source. Included with the solar package is "one or two sealed, maintenance-free batteries, a high output MPPT charge controller, and a motion detector so lights are acti¬vated only when needed." In combination with the LED lights, the solar package offers plenty of energy to keep the shelter's powered long term.
Metal Benches
Panel Built offers a variety of bench options with our bus and transit shelters. Our standard bench option includes a backless (or with back) stainless steel bench that is 9 1/2" deep and mounted to the interior of the bench. This option is generally the most convenient for installation because it requires no additional work on-site as these benches are fully formed and installed into the shelter at our modular construction facilities.
However, Panel Built can incorporate free-standing bench options into our shelter design as well. These bench options would still be able to fit inside the envelope of the shelter and would provide the necessary space at the end of the shelter for wheelchairs and others with disabilities to comply with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Free-standing benches can come in a variety of custom designs either to blend into the design of the bus stop or even the surrounding environment.
Advertising & Map Cases
Advertising and map cases can be a feature that some customers on their first bus shelter project may overlook. Advertising on bus shelters are a great way for transportation departments to begin making money off of their new bus shelters and really become a great source of income as the number of bus stops increase. Panel Built, Inc. can incorporate these advertising panels into the walls of the bus shelter, allowing for advertising on both sides of the shelter. Panel Built's ad cases are LED-backlit to provide clear lighting and a locking case to prevent theft or tampering.
Map cases act very similarly to the advertising cases except they will primarily be found on the interior of the shelter. This enclosure is a large glass case that allows for the pedestrians to look at a map of the area while they are waiting. These map cases will primarily serve to show a map of the bus line, showing the different routes, stops, etc. However, they are also utilized in amusement parks to show the map of the park, and they can be found in national parks, to map out trails or provide additional information on the natural wildlife in the area. The great benefit of incorporating both map cases and advertising cases into your next shelter project is that it provides added value to the pedestrians beyond just being a place to sit and wait.
Waste/Garbage Receptacle
Finally, Panel Built can include a metal, protected waste receptacle to complement your bus shelter. Panel Built uses a highly durable steel garbage bin with an impact thermoplastic finish to ensure it has the same high level of durability as our bus shelters. These fixtures are designed to fit into the design of the bus stop and not be an eyesore like many trash cans can be, and they can come in a variety of styles, sizes, and colors.
Waste receptacles have become commonplace in many bus shelter designs to simply help keep the area around the bus stop clean. Because a transit stop is a place people will stay for a period of time, people will often finish a beverage or snack here. This makes it much more likely to collect trash and plastic bottles than other areas if a garbage receptacle is not present.
Founded in 1995 by brother Pat and Michael Kiernan, Panel Built operates under one mission, To Solve Our Customers’ Space Needs with Excellence and Great Customer Service. Beginning as a provider of panelized office buildings, Panel Built now also provides a full line of cleanrooms, welded steel buildings, ballistic rated booths, guard shacks, mezzanines, prefabricated towers, and more. Panel Built provides “A Better Way to Create Space” for industrial and commercial building projects.