Bus riders in Warren will soon have new places to wait along Schoenherr and Dequindre roads after the City Council approved funding for three new SMART bus shelters.
By: Brian Wells | Warren Weekly | Published March 24, 2026
WARREN — Bus riders in Warren will soon have new places to wait along Schoenherr and Dequindre roads after City Council approved funding for three new SMART bus shelters.
The request, which is for a budget amendment of $115,705, came before the City Council at the March 10 meeting. Each shelter will cost $31,039.18 and they are manufactured in Madison Heights.
Two shelters will be installed near the intersection of Schoenherr and 13 Mile roads — one on northbound Schoenherr, north of 13 Mile, and one on westbound 13 Mile east of Schoenherr. The third will be installed on northbound Dequindre Road, north of Nine Mile Road.
The shelters will be similar to others that have been installed and will have clear walls and benches.
Once the project is completed, the funds will be reimbursed from the SMART bus community credits available to the city. Warren Public Service Administrative Supervisor Steve Campbell said even though new funds are awarded to the city each year, funds awarded in previous years would start to fall off if not used.
“Even though we incur new ones each year, we start losing previous credits, but they’ve extended some of those credits because of COVID,” he said.
Campbell said the locations for the new shelters were chosen based on which stops are utilized the most by passengers.
“SMART can give you a review of what spots are being used the most and the most frequented bus stops,” he said.
The bus stops at 13 Mile and Schoenherr roads were chosen based on a number of complaints received and the proximity to the Kroger store.
“A lot of people are using the shopping carts as a bench and leaving the shopping carts there. It became an issue with blight,” he said. “They were issuing some warnings to Kroger for not cleaning up the property, so it was brought to our attention that maybe we should look into putting shelters there.”
Councilmember Melody Magee asked if there would be any safety requirements. She said sometimes homeless people will stay in the bus shelters and sleep on the benches.
Campbell said the benches will have “humps” installed to prevent people from laying on them.
“But other than that, it would come down to whether or not complaints are coming in and whether or not the Police Department would be able to respond to address the situation,” he said.
The request was unanimously approved by the City Council.