Shoppers who take Valley Metro buses to and from Valley View Mall now have to walk a little farther to catch a ride.

On Wednesday, the Roanoke transit system eliminated one of its direct mall stops near the entrance of J.C. Penney Co.'s catalog department.

Riders now are hoofing it from the mall to a transit stop beside Wal-Mart, adjacent to the shopping center. Another bus stop is near the Olive Garden restaurant, also adjacent to Valley View.

Valley Metro intends to relocate the mall bus stop, general manager Dave Morgan said. It's scouting out a new location, but no decision has been made..

Meanwhile, Valley Metro plans to revamp its busiest bus stops throughout the Roanoke Valley, building three-sided shelters with benches and solar lighting. These shelters will go up at 12 to 18 locations within the next year, Morgan said. One already is located at the Civic Mall on Williamson Road in Roanoke.

A shelter may go up at the new mall stop, Morgan said, depending on where it lands.

It's unclear why Valley Metro and Valley View decided to move the bus stop from J.C. Penney.

"It wasn't working out with our routes," Morgan said. "We decided to eliminate that while we're working on a new one."

Morgan referred additional inquiries to mall management. Louise Dudley, manager of Valley View, did not return a call Friday.

Eliminating this mall stop has frustrated some regular Valley Metro riders, while others aren't concerned about it.

While shopping at Valley View on Thursday, Evelyn Johnson of Roanoke said, she almost missed the bus' arrival at the Wal-Mart stop.

"We had to run across the street," Johnson said Friday as she waited for the bus at Wal-Mart. Four traffic lanes stand between Valley View and the Wal-Mart bus stop.

But "I don't mind the walk" from the mall, said Sherman Wilson of Roanoke, who also waited for the bus Friday.

The distance from Valley View to the Wal-Mart bus stop is slightly longer than the stretch a person might walk from a parked vehicle to the mall on a crowded Saturday in December.

Still, with the holiday shopping season approaching, Johnson said she's concerned about crossing the road to catch the bus.

"It's going to be a lot of traffic," she said.