Can It! The Ladies of Manhattan Make a Mad Dash to the John... in the Subway
A couple of weeks ago, 30-year-old editor Claire Thompson was on her way to work, transferring between the 2/3 and the Q train at Times Square, when she suddenly really, really had to go. Ms. Thompson made some quick calculations in her head: if she made it to the platform in less than a minute, and the train was waiting, she would be at 23rd Street in less than 10 minutes, and then it would be a three-minute walk to work, and another couple minutes waiting for the elevator… She started to panic, envisioning a wet, warm stream of urine dripping down her leg and onto her Miu Miu pumps.
“That was when I noticed a door to a women’s restroom—inside the subway station!” she said. The door was miraculously unlocked, and Ms. Thompson ducked inside. She was pleasantly surprised to find a clean stall, stocked with toilet paper, and a working sink, with soap. True, there was a homeless woman sleeping in the corner, but Ms. Thompson took care not to wake her.
Since then, Ms. Thompson has used the restrooms in several other subway stations around Manhattan, including Union Square and the 72nd Street stop on the Upper West Side. “They’re really convenient—you go, and then you can just hop on the subway and continue your journey,” she explained. “Some of them close after midnight, though, so you should plan ahead if you’re going to rely on a subway bathroom.”
To be sure, using a subway bathroom isn’t for everyone. Sarah Mintz, 24, an assistant at a fashion magazine, said she would never use a subway bathroom. She has, however, gone several times inside the Old Navy in Soho.