If you've visited or lived in New York City, you'll likely know that finding a public bathroom in a time of need is nearly impossible. The city has a problem with a lack of publicly available spaces to take care of business, but there are solutions if you know where to look.
There are options available ranging from public listings to private apps, so here's what you need to know.
A map of every bathroom in New York City
Dr. Wansoo, the creator of nyrestroom.com and professor at Rutgers University, aimed to cure one of Manhattan’s oldest problems—the difficulty of finding a public restroom—and he came up with a handy map that’s accessible to everyone.
So if you're stuck anywhere in the city, you can load up this website and it will show you the public, book store, coffee shop, hotel, fast food, and “other” bathrooms available around the city.
There are sometimes some extra details listed but in general it's just a helpful guide to get you started.
Take note that while it's still maintained, it's not perfect, and sometimes you will have to try a couple locations but it's easier than just blindly wandering the Manhattan (and other borough) streets.
To see a list of all the New York Restrooms, click here.
There's also an official NYCGo guide to public bathrooms
Finally, and less comprehensively, there's an official guide to public bathrooms.
You can find a full list of New York City parks with public restrooms at the Parks Department website. The public restrooms in Bryant Park—replete with attendants, Toto toilets and fixtures, a classical-music soundtrack and fresh flowers—are perhaps the most notable in the City.
https://www.nycgo.com/plan-your-trip/basic-information/public-restrooms
To be honest I had no idea this existed in Bryant Park but there you go!
Another fun fact from this site:
The City contracted more than a decade ago to build 20 automatic public toilets; most remain in a warehouse in Queens. So far, there is one facility right on the edge of Madison Square Park and another at Plaza de Las Americas in Washington Heights (at Wadsworth Avenue and West 175th Street) in Manhattan; three in Brooklyn, at Grand Army Plaza, Valentino Pier (Red Hook) and the Williamsburg Bridge Bus Depot); one at Corona Plaza in Queens; and one at Fordham Plaza in the Bronx. Each costs 25 cents for 15 minutes of use, are open daily from 8am to 8pm and are self-cleaning. The remaining 15 toilets have yet to be installed.
Each costs 25 cents for 15 minutes of use. The New York City Department of Transportation says that additional ones will be installed at Valentino Park and Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in downtown Far Rockaway, Queens, by mid-2019; plans, or at least assessments, for more locations are in the works.
https://www.nyctourism.com/public-restrooms/
Now don't get me wrong, I know there's some red tape, but “decades” to roll these bathrooms out!? Madness.
Apps to find public toilets in NYC
In addition to the websites, there are two great apps that will help you find what you're looking for:
Toodle Loo is the “Yelp for Bathrooms” and will help you find what you need with all sorts of filtering and details.
…allowing users to find bathrooms near them, including any codes required to enter. Users can see others' reviews and filter by amenities like wheelchair accessibility, baby changing tables and much more! Best of all, it's free to use!
And Got2Go has been on a mission to help everyone who lives in or travels to NYC!
…it has been my mission to help everyone who lives in or travels to NYC find accessible, sanitary, and public bathrooms. Besides posting pictures and videos detailing and rating bathroom locations, I have also created a crowdsourced public Google Maps List which to date has over 2,000 bathrooms across all 5 boroughs.
I hope this helps you find your moment of zen!
