I love urban rail transit but I also am not a robot and thus human s when nature calls on line 1 you have to answer. On SEPTA regional rail there are no bathrooms on there trains and I have had to to hold it till Trenton. BART has almost no Bathrooms either. Buffalo the ride is so short its not a problem but yes I have had to go in a corner off the platform. Boston if you are woman at North Station you are high and dry because the bathrooms for women have only 2 stalls Seems that San Fran has so much of a issue that there is now a App on the smart phone for this see-
Plan to avoid hurry-calls. Even if the need isn’t immediate, take care of it just before starting any trip, at your hotel room, home, office, or whatever.
I do the same just befor sitting down for a meal with friends, sitting down in a concert hall or theater or classroom.
In any city or town there are coffee shops and restarants. I use their facilities and generaly buy something inexpensive “to go,” a bagel or donut, possibly with a cup of tea. I would not use their facilties without buying something.
Unfortunately, the public restrooms that remain are often dirty enough or vandalized enough to be basically unuseable. There is a reason why we can’t have nice things.
As a kid I loved going to “somebodys else bathroom”. In fancy hotels they even had hand cream and mouthwash in the public hotels. Some places even had a full time washroom conceier that did everything but wipe your derrier.
I suspect the lack of public restrooms at transit stations is an attempt to prevent loitering. Also, not having restrooms to maintain makes things a little easier on the budget.
Not saying it’s right, but it’s the way it is.
By the way, sometimes finding a restroom somewhere isn’t that difficult. Look for a large office building or office complex with multiple tenants. Many of those buildings don’t have individual restrooms for the tenants, but they will have them somewhere in the hallways, typically near the elevator shafts.
How do I know? Hey, if you’ve been in and out of as many office buildings as I’ve been in the last thirty years you learn all about these things!
Here in Baltimore most downtown office buildings now have tight security. No way you are just walking in off the street and using the rest room…
Why can’t we have nice things? Maybe too many of us stopped being nice people, or stopped expecting reasonable standards of behavior from other people around us?
But out here in the rural suburbs, as I motor around in my 7800 lb, 12 mpg, F250 work truck, or when I’m out with the wife in her 15 sec 1/4 mile, 360 hp, twin turbo Eccoboost FORD FLEX LIMITED, there is always a nice clean McDonalds, or Denny’s, or Bob Evan’s to stop at…
This is March, correct? I have not had to go into the “city” yet this year. I make my money in the rural suburbs, and I spend it there.
Most of us would welcome toilets with a small charge, say 50 cents or a dollar. That would cover cleaning and supplies. And we could expect clean facilities.
The best restroom was in the PATH station at the WTC. Always clean, always open, never a worry. The PATH police substation was located right next door. RIP WTC.
Read a travel guide years ago with this advise for travelers, “Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down and NEVER skip a chance to use a bathroom”. You never know where the next one is. It became my travel mantra.
Lots of people like cities. I mean, I’m not a huge fan, but to each their own. To think otherwise seems silly. Then again, so does talking about what car you drive in a post about bathrooms…? Although flexes do kind of look like a port-a-potty on its side.
The OP has a long history of being critical of the suburban and rural life styles, suggesting everyone in the US should have to live like people in Europe.
I have lived in and around the Baltimore/central Maryland area my whole life, 61 years now, 20 years of that in a very “urban” suburb of Baltimore.
The city has its place for some people, and its history is important, but those of us who choose not to live or work there are not the cause of its problems as the OP so often suggests.
I could fix a lot of the “problems” the OP talks about. First step might be a fair property tax system like Henry George and others proposed. But that would upset as many rich liberals as it would rich conservatives…
As for the FLEX, it is by far one of the best cars on the road today in terms of comfort, performance and utility, the three things I want from a car. It is easily the best, most functional car I have owned since I owned a Checker Marathon.
You are welcome to ride around in whatever low to the ground, crampted, bouncy, underpowered little roller skate you prefer.
My wife has rheumatiod arthritis and needs easy, upright entry and exit. We have grand kids to move around, and the last FLEX saved their lives…
Do SUV’s guzzle gas?
Honda Insight
2 seats x 63 mpg = 126 seat-miles per gallon
Ford Explorer
7 seats x 18 mpg = 126 seat miles per gallon
Transit Bus
35 seats x 3.6 mpg = 126 seat miles per gallon
OK yes I have had to go al fresco and pee outside behind the dumpster or behind a tree and yes in a corner off the train platform. Most men have. But leaving fecal matter behind as in dumping the coal car? Seems that this is a Major Problem in San Fransisco as folks are leaving more then there heart behind in San Fransisco.
And if you’re on the road you can always look for a Wal-Mart. The rest rooms are usually near the front entrances, and they don’t care who walks in and uses them.
The same can be said for most new supermarkets.
Now sometimes, sometimes, you can get lucky at a transit station, especially if it’s a big one. We were picking up a friend at the DC Metro station in Vienna VA and after a two-hour drive Lady Firestorm really had to use the facilities, but there were none to be found. She asked a female transit cop if there were any “ladies rooms” nearby, and that fine officer directed her to the rest room the transit police use, “hidden in plain sight,” to use a phrase.
I waited to use the facilities at the antique show were were going to. I wish I hadn’t, my eyes crossed at the, um, “aroma” in the men’s room at the show!
Did they have old magazines instead of a roll? That would be really authentic!
Eaton’s was a staple of most “outdoor establishments” across Canada for many years.
We have a public washroom at our Museum, it is marked on the map we give to visitors and there are several signs pointing to it. But we still have to put up “out of order” signs in all the passenger cars to remind people.
Even then, on occasion we get someone who must have been illiterate…
Hey 'Dude, I can understand that. Back in the 90’s on a N&W 611 excursion an old lady flushed the toilet while the train was stopped at the Appomattox station, right in front of the just de-trained excursion passengers. GLOOOSH!!!
I thought the car hostess was going to die of embarassment! She ran back into the car, too late at that point, and we could hear someone wailing inside “But Mother had to gooooo…!”