Are you baking before you board your bus or train?
Queensland has some of the highest ultra violet (UV) levels and skin cancer rates in the world, and cumulative exposure at everyday places like bus stops and train platforms significantly increases long-term risk. In addition to putting Queenslanders at risk of heat illnesses, prolonged waiting at unshaded transport stops poses serious long-term risks of skin cancer from harmful UV radiation.
Baked Before Boarding is a public campaign calling out the everyday UV and heat stress faced by people waiting for buses and trains across Queensland. It shines a light on the most exposed stops, platforms and interchanges where there is little to no shade, no shelter from reflected heat, and nowhere safe to sit while waiting in extreme temperatures.
In a state where high UV and long hot seasons are the norm, waiting for public transport often means standing on bare concrete beside wide roads or rail corridors with no tree cover. For many people, especially older adults, children, shift workers and people with disability, this is not just uncomfortable. It is unsafe and it actively discourages public transport use.
The campaign documents and names the hottest, most hostile waiting places across Queensland and uses lived experience, photos and local knowledge to show what it actually feels like to be baked before you even board. It reframes shade as essential public infrastructure, not a luxury.
Baked Before Boarding calls for practical, fast solutions such as trees, shelters, cool materials, water access and better stop design and placement, so that catching a bus or train does not mean risking heat stress. The message is simple. If we want people to choose public transport, we have to make waiting safe, dignified and bearable in a Queensland climate. Join us in the campaign for quality places where we walk and where we wait.Â
Get in contact! info @ queenslandwalks.org.au
1. Share a photo of the stop or station where you wait
Take and send a photo of the best and the worst places where we walk and wait for cool and covered placesÂ
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2. Nominate the worst path, stop or stationÂ
Tell us your best and worst bus or tram stop, shelter, train or ferry for shelter or shade
3. Become a Baked Before Boarding citizen scientist!
Be shortlisted to borrow a Surface Infrared Thermometer from the Queensland Walkshop Borrow Library.Â
Hit the link below to join the campaign.Â
