LA Metro says thousands find relief using portable toilets — a first for transit agency

Midway into LA Metro’s rollout of portable, self-contained bathrooms at four of its stations, the toilet units were used more than 17,000 times without any reports of illegal activity, the transit agency said on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

LA Metro has reached 100 days of service, or a little more than three months into a small-scale, six-month pilot program, providing restrooms at a few designated stations for the first time in the county transit agency’s 30-year history.

Of the 140 rail and bus transit centers that Metro serves on its 115 miles of rail lines, only three stations have public restrooms, not including the new units.

People used the four portable toilet units 17,278 times from Oct. 11, 2023 to Jan. 12, Metro reported, with no reported incidents or shutdowns. “At the project’s outset, many people worried that public restrooms wouldn’t last long in good condition. However, the numbers prove otherwise,” read a Metro report.

Metro teamed up with Throne Labs, a maker of portable bathrooms based in Washington D.C., which aims to provide larger than typical bathroom units to transit agencies, cities and public parks, so-called “lovable bathrooms.”

The LA Metro experimental program ends in April, when Throne Labs will ask for a contract to continue the program, and possibly expand it.

“We are seeing pretty steady usage across all of our Thrones out there,” said Jessica Heinzelman, Throne co-founder and chief operating officer on Tuesday. “We are super thrilled that people are using it.”