Bathroomaccess.com; Google Play Store Android App: Bathroom Access wins Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’s Seventh District

When asked what inspired the creation of Bathroomaccess.com; Google Play Store Android App: Bathroom Access, the student said, ”Like many homebound people during the pandemic, my grandparents turned to neighborhood walks for fresh air and exercise. But they found they couldn’t walk far from home, because they knew they wouldn’t have access to a bathroom. The reality for many people, particularly older individuals, is that they simply need to use the bathroom more frequently. This was challenging enough before COVID-19, but since 2020, private businesses have become even more reluctant or unable-to allow non-customers into their facilities. And even when they do, they often restrict it to paying customers.

As I dug into this issue, I found the U.S. has eight public toilets per 100,000 people, trailing Iceland’s world-leading 56 public toilets per 100,000. As recently as mid-2022, the UN has said the lack of public bathrooms is “an ongoing sanitation crisis, and it highlights American inequality and marginalization.” I wanted to see how this inequality and marginalization affects my local community. I posted an online survey and received more than 200+ responses including painful stories of racial minorities being denied access even when they were paying customers, or horror stories of taxi drivers using bottles to relieve themselves on the go.

Not only do we not have an adequate number of public restrooms, locating existing public restrooms is not easy – for instance, most municipal websites in the Greater Boston area include parks, bike trails and even water-filling stations, but not restrooms. Even when some city websites provide restroom information, it is hard to find. There is no standard information such as wheelchair accessibility or hours of operation. In addition, people in the greater Boston area live in one municipality but commute to work or have family in other municipalities. There is no single resource that can help these residents find restrooms in larger metro areas.”