Finding a Restroom in Boston Got Easier

In hopes of easing the search for an available restroom, the city of Boston released a new map of public facilities for the multitude of visitors coming for the World Cup, Fourth of July, Tall Ships, and related festivities.

Since its launch a month ago, the webpage has been viewed more than 150,000 times, Mass Live reported. Each day seems to bring thousands more clicks from Bostonians and visitors in desperate need of a restroom.

The Boston Planning Advisory Council began working on the project during the winter. Boston already had a public restroom map, released in 2018, but it was hard to find on the city’s website, trickier to use, and generally outdated and incomplete, Mass Live reported.

The city wanted to expand the map’s scope to make it more useful to families. In addition to listing the locations of about 170 public restrooms, the new edition includes more than 250 drinking fountains and 16 lactation or infant feeding rooms. The Boston Planning Advisory Council created the new map using Google Maps, making it accessible on mobile devices.

The variety of public restrooms include city-owned facilities, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority stations, parks, libraries, food markets, publicly accessible buildings, and police and fire stations.

The map also features information on when the facility is open, whether it is wheelchair-accessible or has stairs, and whether it has a family restroom or changing table.