Four Arizona State University students beat out the competition to design a better bus stop that will be built at hundreds of locations around Phoenix.
"It's about improving peoples lives," said Ethan Fancher, a senior and industrial design student.
Fancher and three other students, Derek Smoker, Dan Duquette and Erlend Meling, told ABC15 they started with the goal of creating a structure that was shaded, vandal-proof, handicap-accessible and affordable.
The team used special computer software to design and analyze how their stop would shield people from the sun throughout the year. They spent time on buses and at stops talking with riders to get feedback.
"We would work as a team going back-and-forth, telling each other what we liked and the little things we didn't like," Fancher said.
Over the next five years, Phoenix hopes to install 400 of the team's stops throughout the city. They will first be constructed at damaged and heavily used stops, Fancher said.
The team told ABC15 they expect a full prototype to be built before the end of the year.
Click here for more information on the competition.
