Can LA Answer Nature's Call? Metro Tests Out Public Bathrooms

Is nature calling and the only solution is sneaking into a coffee shop bathroom, trekking to a stinky porta-potty or squatting behind a tree? A new city pilot program is trying to fix that.

Through a partnership between LA Metro and public bathroom start-up Throne, a pilot program has launched self-contained bathrooms at three Metro stations for a six-month period to find solutions to L.A.'s public restroom shortage.

In addition to Thrones at Westlake/MacArthur Park on the B/D Lines, Willowbrook/Rosa Parks on the A/C Lines and Norwalk on the C Line, there will be one exclusively for metro operators at the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station.

“We hope that we can make people's lives easier by taking the stress out of finding a bathroom when it's needed most,” said Throne cofounder Jessica Heinzelman.

The self-contained bathrooms can be set up in a matter of hours, cutting out the installation costs of building bathrooms and connecting them to sewage, water and power systems.

How to use them 

Users send a text, scan a QR code or check-in via an app. Instructions are available on the app, outside stalls and inside stalls in English and Spanish.

According to LA Metro, 92% of its ridership has phones, but TAP cards would be another option for accessing the bathrooms should the project roll out after six months.

But giving the program a trial run without including phoneless users might harbor some problems of its own. Shayna Englin, director of Digital Divide LA, said she worries the program won’t easily serve those who need public bathrooms the most.

“If you think about the population of people who really need access to public toilet facilities and the overlap of the people who are disconnected, [there’s] significant overlap,” Englin said.

Englin said government programs to help low-to-no income individuals get phones tend to be “wildly” inaccessible as they depend on online systems to apply in the first place.

In the meantime, Heinzelman said Metro officials will be on site to help.

“People are opening it for their friend or for somebody walking by,” Heinzelman said. “And then Metro ambassadors are also kind of on site and available to help people get in if they need to.”

Lack of access

Efforts to update the city’s public bathroom availability follows reports that L.A. only has 14 permanent bathroom stalls.

Improving public infrastructure ahead of the 2028 Olympics isn’t lost on city leaders, either. Studies have shown that access to public bathrooms can reduce public defecation and disease outbreaks.