More people are worried about finding a restroom than you think

Written by: Taylor Hatmaker‍

At Throne, our belief is simple: Everyone deserves a clean and safe place to use the restroom. Finding and using one in public spaces should be a breeze – not a maze.

We know public restroom access in the U.S. can be a nightmare. And whether you’re out running errands or hopping on public transportation to get to work, at some point nature calls for us all. When it does, the pressure is on. Can you find a restroom in time? Will you need to slip by the line of cash registers undetected or trade proof of purchase for a precious door code? Should you really have ordered that second double espresso?

Building empathy is the first step toward shaping a solution that meets everyone’s needs. And we’ve taken the time to listen and learn from the community about how to create a clean, safe, and delightful restroom experience.

Who worries about public restroom access

We’ve learned a ton about who suffers when public restrooms are scarce (Spoiler alert: it’s everybody). People can be too shy to share their stories of near-misses, desperate measures and fast food chain subterfuge, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Using the restroom isn’t everyone’s number one conversation topic and it’s probably not number two either (pun intended), but the more we talk about it, the more we can support people who worry the most. Someone you know and love is likely dealing with restroom anxiety already. It’s time to talk about how, when, and where we go.Our co-founder and CEO, Fletcher Wilson, isn’t afraid to talk about it. Fletcher, who has irritable bowel syndrome, knows firsthand how stressful unpredictable public restroom access can be. “The line I always say is ‘my GI system is my worst system,’” he said, describing his personal stake in creating Throne.

Walking around his home city of San Francisco and hunting for a restroom, he’d note how many porta-potties were chained up and closed to the public and which local bodegas would say yes during a desperate bathroom dash. That experience made him wonder: If it’s this stressful for me, what about everyone else?

“It took a lot longer to understand other people's problems,” Fletcher explained. Over time, he discovered how many other people were struggling with the same worries. “I started asking Uber and Lyft drivers about their bathroom experience,” he said. “And that was like, the next branch out in this journey of ‘is this just my problem or is it other people's problem too?’”

While raising young children, he swapped war stories with other parents on the playground and quickly came to realize just how universal the struggle for public restroom access is. “This is a problem for people that work from their car, this is a problem for parents of young children, this is a problem for people with GI issues.”

That list only scratches the surface. Women and other people who sit to use the restroom, bus drivers, people experiencing homelessness, runners and cyclists, anyone dealing with incontinence or many other medical conditions – the list of who worries about where to go goes on.

Those concerns, and the immense relief of finding a clean, accessible public restroom, both come across in the feedback we collect from Throne users.

“I'm a Lyft driver and it's hard to find places to stop to use the bathroom,“ one relieved rideshare driver in Ann Arbor recently shared in a review after using a Throne. “It's a great thing you're doing with these.” Other ridesharing drivers say that finding a restroom open late can be next to impossible, a problem that Throne access can help solve.

A safe, clean, and dignified solution for everyone

In a recent survey by leading hygiene products brand Tork, 44% of people – nearly half of those surveyed – said they feel anxious about using the restroom outside of their home. Out of 6,000 respondents, 38% said they limit eating and drinking to avoid needing to use a public restroom.

Among parents with young children and people who rely on mobility aids like wheelchairs or canes, 50% of people reported changing their eating and drinking habits to avoid visiting public restrooms.

We see those numbers brought to life in feedback from Throne users.

“This is the coolest thing ever and I'm very grateful to not have to leave my young child outside alone to squeeze into a porta-john,” one parent wrote after using a Throne in Northville, Michigan. “Every ‘walk around’ town should have one.”

“Awesome concept. As a wheelchair user I truly appreciate how spacious, comfortable and easy to use it was,” a Throne user in Long Beach, California wrote. An older Throne user who has relied on public transit to get around Los Angeles for 50 years called Throne “an idea long overdue, especially for seniors [and the] elderly.”

“This is the coolest thing ever and I'm very grateful to not have to leave my young child outside alone to squeeze into a porta-john.”Parent in Northville, MI

When the team at Throne started tackling the problem of public restroom access, our other co-founder and VP of R&D, Ben Clark, was blown away by just how many communities the issue touched.

“It was just so clear, how many people just don't have any access to a good bathroom,” Ben said. “It's meaningful to be able to see so many people just having access to bathrooms with their toddlers in a park, or people who are on these long bus commutes that never had a good solution before – it does make a real meaningful difference to a lot of people.”For Ben and the Throne team, it all comes down to meeting people’s basic needs. “It’s about having a way to give that relief to so many people who should have had it a long time ago,” he said. “We're happy to be the ones to do it.”