No place to go: North America's public bathroom problem and how to solve it

This story is part of Uytae Lee's Stories About Here, an original series with the CBC Creator Network. You can watch every episode of this series on CBC Gem.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're making your way downtown, walking fast, faces pass, and — well, nature calls.

So now you're walking really fast because you really, really need to find a bathroom.

The problem? 

If you're anywhere in North America, finding a public bathroom is a very difficult task. 

Caught short on public bathrooms

A truly public bathroom is one that is accessible to anyone, for free — not if you buy a coffee or a doughnut.

But accessible public bathrooms are often missing in places you'd expect them, like busy streets and transit stations. The few that are free to use are difficult to find, and are almost always closed in the evening.

In my hometown of Vancouver, there is just one bathroom across the entire transit system — just one! — located at Waterfront Station.

You think it'd be somewhere convenient, like the lobby.

But to get to it, you have to go through the fare gates, across a pedestrian bridge, down a set of escalators, through a tunnel, past another set of gates, and if you haven't already peed yourself, you'll find it in the back corner of the SeaBus terminal.

It's a real pain in the butt.

Other countries do it better

But this isn't the case in other cities. 

In Paris, there are over 400 free-standing public bathrooms across the city. 

In London, one out of every three tube stations has a public bathroom.

And in Tokyo, public bathrooms are not only plentiful, they are often beautiful works of art, winning prizes and international recognition for their design.

So what's the deal? What's stopping us from providing more public bathrooms?

And how can that change?

Find out in Stories About Here: Why Public Bathrooms Suck in North America.

About this series

Stories About Here is an original series with the CBC Creator Network that explores the urban planning challenges that communities across Canada face today. In each episode we dig into the often overlooked issues in our own backyards — whether it's the shortage of public bathrooms, sewage leaking into the water, or the bureaucratic roots of the housing crisis. Through it all, we hope to inspire people to become better informed and engaged members of their communities.

You can watch every episode of this series on CBC Gem.