Sunday, August 19, 2007

Bathrooms for Bikers

I could really use a map that shows usable, biker friendly bathrooms in the NYC area and I'm guessing that I'm not the only one. I couldn't find one, so I thought I'd ask for your help in making our own map.
I can't figure out how to make a map of just points (not a route) on bikely.com, which is where I post all my bike routes, so for now it's living at google maps.
I know everyone says that Starbucks and Barnes and Noble have the best public bathrooms, but are there better or worse ones? More convenient ones? Friendlier to bicyclists? How safe are they? How safe is your bike?
Supposedly, any NYC Police Station will let you use their bathroom. Has anyone tried this?
Do you have a favorite rest stop in the NYC area?




I'd love to get the following info from local (NY, NJ, CONN) riders who have actually used the facilities.

Place Name and Address
Directions to actual bathroom. (Inside? Around the back?)
Hours?
Seasonal?
Safe alone?
Safe for Women?
Safe to leave your bike? (This assumes standard NYC rules. In other words, will your bike be stripped of all its parts in the time it takes to pee, or do you need to leave a riding partner outside to watch the bikes while one of you goes inside?)
Where do you park? (Right in front or far from the entrance?)
Comments and rating. Is there an attendant, is it reasonably clean? Can you refill a standard water bottle? Do you get attitude? Do you have to be a customer? When did you last visit this bathroom?

Example:

Prospect Park Picnic House - Prospect Park Dr. West at 4th street.
Not directly on the road. Make a left into the park. The building looks closed from the west side, but the bathrooms are downstairs on the other side.
8 - 8, 7 days
Seasonal?(not sure)
Safe alone
Safe for women.
Bike racks outside on the side of the building are probably safe for a short pit stop.

To see the map mashup with the NYC bike path overlay go to google maps

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The New York Public Library Science and Business Branch (34 Street and Madison Avenue) has big, clean safe bathrooms downstairs.
There are also bike posts outside.

Anonymous said...

even if they had signs everywhere saying "COME IN, USE OUR REST ROOMS"... i would never want a police stations rest room.