BART for the potty trainers
November 27, 2010 7:19 AM Subscribe
Are BART restrooms available and/or how to transport my potty-training toddler by transit?
I'd like to take my toddler on BART today, which would entail a bus ride and then a transfer to BART (Balboa Park) for an hour-long ride to Pleasant Hill. She's mostly potty trained but when she says she needs to pee, we usually need to find a bathroom pretty quickly. Will that be possible on BART? The BART website says above-ground stations have re-opened restrooms but first of all, Balboa Park is sort of underground and sort of not. Does anyone know for sure if there's a restroom open there?
I think the next one that's above ground after that is Rockridge. Obviously once we're on the train she'd have to hold it but I"m thinking that we could time a restroom break at a station along the way if I knew the restrooms were open.
I could just put her in a diaper and forget about it but I'd prefer not to. I can be careful about not letting her drink a lot before we get on the train, too. Other ideas?
I'd like to take my toddler on BART today, which would entail a bus ride and then a transfer to BART (Balboa Park) for an hour-long ride to Pleasant Hill. She's mostly potty trained but when she says she needs to pee, we usually need to find a bathroom pretty quickly. Will that be possible on BART? The BART website says above-ground stations have re-opened restrooms but first of all, Balboa Park is sort of underground and sort of not. Does anyone know for sure if there's a restroom open there?
I think the next one that's above ground after that is Rockridge. Obviously once we're on the train she'd have to hold it but I"m thinking that we could time a restroom break at a station along the way if I knew the restrooms were open.
I could just put her in a diaper and forget about it but I'd prefer not to. I can be careful about not letting her drink a lot before we get on the train, too. Other ideas?
Response by poster: So, I did a little of my own investigating and yes, Balboa Park has open restrooms, as do MacArthur and West Oakland.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 8:03 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by otherwordlyglow at 8:03 AM on November 27, 2010
Best answer: They do have open restrooms. The Glen Park station has a restroom as well (which is right after Balboa Park). The thing I'm going to say is that BART restrooms - as is any public restroom open to the public - are generally pretty poorly kept up and gross. If I were you , I would try to plan to get off at a station and find a place nearby (yeah, you'd need to pay twice, but I'm not sure I'd wanna subject my toddler to a bathroom that's potentially that bad.
posted by waylaid at 8:20 AM on November 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by waylaid at 8:20 AM on November 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also be aware that even though the official word may be that the restrooms are there and are open, the reality is often far different (e.g., spontaneous closings for "maintenance" etc.)
posted by hapax_legomenon at 8:27 AM on November 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by hapax_legomenon at 8:27 AM on November 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: waylaid makes a good point. Rockridge is probably a good bet for well-kept out-of-station bathrooms. Cactus Taqueria (just south of the BART station, on the east side of the street) is probably chaotic enough that you could sneak in.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:31 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by madcaptenor at 8:31 AM on November 27, 2010
Balboa Park is in the SF city limits, so any interim stop you make within SF - for example, the Embarcadero - will only be whatever the inter-city fare is ($2 now?), each.
posted by kcm at 8:39 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by kcm at 8:39 AM on November 27, 2010
Anecdata: the one women's room in MacArthur was really pretty disgusting a few weeks ago (think feces - or don't, ew). If I hadn't been drunk and really, really needing to pee for the past two hours, I would've turned around and walked the mile home instead of using it.
posted by deludingmyself at 11:31 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by deludingmyself at 11:31 AM on November 27, 2010
Response by poster: Live from the Pittsburg Baypoint train: we stopped in Rickridge and went to Rockridge Kids where my daughter decided it was time to pee. RK has a great bathroom with a potty ring and everything, so that turned out great. She also needed to go when we got back to the Rockridge station and the restroom there really wasn't too awful. We're 2 stops away now and I think we're home-free! More problematic was that the noise in the tunnel was a little scary for her but we made it with a minimum if trauma!
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:41 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:41 AM on November 27, 2010
Good to know that the bathroom in Rockridge station isn't too bad. Rockridge is my closest station, and sometimes I get off the train and I need to pee, and it's a fifteen-minute walk home late at night when everything is closed.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:52 AM on November 27, 2010
posted by madcaptenor at 11:52 AM on November 27, 2010
The other, gross, solution is what we call the turtle potty - it has a lid and is self-contained. You can get liners for them, but I usually just put a heap of paper to soak up the pee/contain the poop, hold it VERY carefully until we are somewhere it can get emptied and washed out.
We're working on peeing in bushes too. It's not working so well.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:43 PM on November 27, 2010
We're working on peeing in bushes too. It's not working so well.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:43 PM on November 27, 2010
Balboa Park, Ashby, and North Berkeley all have public bathrooms despite technically being subway stations. I believe Glen Park, San Bruno, and South City are the same way.
24th Street, 16th Street, Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, Embarcadero, Lake Merritt, 12th Street, 19th Street, and Downtown Berkeley are the underground stations that do not have bathrooms. SFO, despite being an elevated station, does not have a public bathroom in the station.
posted by clorox at 3:02 PM on November 27, 2010
24th Street, 16th Street, Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, Embarcadero, Lake Merritt, 12th Street, 19th Street, and Downtown Berkeley are the underground stations that do not have bathrooms. SFO, despite being an elevated station, does not have a public bathroom in the station.
posted by clorox at 3:02 PM on November 27, 2010
Alright, clorox, why do you know this?
posted by madcaptenor at 4:53 PM on November 27, 2010
posted by madcaptenor at 4:53 PM on November 27, 2010
Response by poster: We made it without an accident even with an about 15 minute delay at Lafayette for some track work.
The Rockridge restroom really was fine but I'm guessing that early on Saturday is probably a relatively low-use time so it was probably in a better state than it might be during commute times.
We're working on peeing in bushes too.
We tried that on Halloween and didn't have great luck either. She was dressed as a cowgirl so I just told her that a little pee on her boots just made the costume more authentic.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 5:06 PM on November 27, 2010
The Rockridge restroom really was fine but I'm guessing that early on Saturday is probably a relatively low-use time so it was probably in a better state than it might be during commute times.
We're working on peeing in bushes too.
We tried that on Halloween and didn't have great luck either. She was dressed as a cowgirl so I just told her that a little pee on her boots just made the costume more authentic.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 5:06 PM on November 27, 2010
Alright, clorox, why do you know this?
1. I ride BART a lot.
2. For whatever reason public restrooms are one of those things that I automatically file in my "IMPORTANT - DO NOT DELETE" memory banks.
posted by clorox at 10:08 AM on December 3, 2010
1. I ride BART a lot.
2. For whatever reason public restrooms are one of those things that I automatically file in my "IMPORTANT - DO NOT DELETE" memory banks.
posted by clorox at 10:08 AM on December 3, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:51 AM on November 27, 2010