One of the lasting impressions for people who visit or work in institutional and commercial facilities is the condition of or access to public restrooms.
It’s why the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers was super excited about the number of toilets and urinals that were installed in his new arena a few years back. It’s also why facility executives are always looking for ways to improve the aesthetics and efficiencies in how restrooms function and appear to the public.
Sanitation services company Nationwide Waste Services recently released an interesting analysis of public restroom access ranking United States’ cities and the availability of public restrooms compared to the number of residents.
The study used data from official sources, OpenStreetMap and the Trust for Public Land, to assess public restroom accessibility. Facilities included were those open to the public but did not include facilities that limited access to customers, like cafes or restaurants.
The analysis found that many urban areas struggle with enough public restroom access due to limited availability, poor maintenance and access restrictions. These challenges are especially harmful to families with young children, homeless, senior citizens and people with disabilities.
Kansas City, Missouri, was ranked No. 1 in the country with nearly 30 restrooms for every 100,000 residents. With 152 restrooms available to the public, Kansas City’s availability level was one of three cities to achieve a “High” level of access among the cities studied. The other cities were San Francisco at 27.5 per 100,000, and Richmond, Virginia, at 27.4 per 100,000.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Salt Lake City; Milwaukee; San Antonio, Cincinnati; Louisville; Portland, Oregon; and Tampa.
Among the cities ranked “Critically Low” with less than four public restrooms per 100,000 residents were Phoenix (3.9), Los Angeles (3.8), Fort Worth, Texas (3.6) and Montgomery, Alabama (2.8).
New York City, with 65 million visitors in addition to more than 8 million residents, ranked 30th in availability with fewer than 10 restrooms per 100,000 residents.
The analysis did shine a spotlight on at least two cities that are addressing their lack of public restrooms.
Dave Lubach is executive editor of the facility market.
