King County Metro plans to remove two public restroom facilities at its transit centers, despite what The Urbanist’s Ryan Packer calls “promising results.”
As Packer explains, “Central Puget Sound has a dearth of public restrooms, particularly at transit facilities, with the few available often accessible for limited hours and many riders dependent on nearby private businesses for restroom access.” The six-month pilot was designed to explore options to expand restroom access.
“However, the pilot program’s high costs, mostly associated with providing 24-hour security to both transit centers to monitor the restrooms, will likely prove the biggest deterrent to making them permanent.” The program cost $568,567 to operate — with roughly 70 percent spent on security personnel.
Councilmember Rod Dembowski, who championed the project, said hiring 24/7 security may have been ‘overkill.’ Dembowski added, “There’s a long history in Seattle with struggling with public restrooms, they can be costly, difficult to maintain, but I think for the usability of our system and the riders, I think it’s something we ought to continue to work on.”
