Explore NYC Public Toilets, Here Is The Start

Source codes and visualization files: the link
Jupyter explanation document: the link

For this article, we tried an pretty user-driven approach, hope you’d enjoy!

Where Are the People, Where Are the Toilets?

Welcome here the visual toilets tour of New York City(NYC)!

For people just looking for a toilet:

Start by locating yourself!

Hopefully, you’re in one of the brighter green areas—those spots mean high foot traffic, which often means more toilets nearby.

The little icons show toilet locations, and their colors tell you the status: open, closed, or under maintenance.

For researchers (or the curious ones):

This map is your entry point into the world of urban toilet logic.

Click around to see where there’s lots of foot traffic but barely any toilets—urban planning gaps, perhaps?

Turn on the administrative district layer and you might notice some areas are “blessed” with toilets, while others seem forgotten.

Fig. 1: NYC pedastrain intensity and toilets distribution map

Labels on the upper left corner are also clickable filters.
Hover for more info, double click to reset.

Limitations (with a touch of wishful thinking):

We’d love to turn this into a full-blown digital twin—one where real-time data, predictive models, and AI insights reveal the hidden stories behind toilet distribution.

But for now… it’s just a really good map with some smart layers.

Maybe you can imagine the rest, contact us or build it yourself?

From Circles to Clocks: Understanding Access, Context, and Time

Step 1: How Far Can You Go? (Service Coverage Map)

For toilet seekers:

Each toilet is surrounded by a circle—this is how far you can reasonably walk to reach it (default: 300 meters). Adjust the slider to see what’s comfortably reachable and what’s… a bit of a hike.

For researchers & curious minds:

This isn’t just about walking distance—it’s about service fairness.

Where are the coverage gaps? Do wealthy districts have tighter spacing between facilities?

Play with different radius to simulate accessibility for children, seniors, or those with limited mobility.

Fig. 2: NYC public toilet service coverage map

Use the sliding bar on the left to adjust coverage radius.
One click to select, Shift + Click to choose multiple.
Double click to reset.

Step 2: What’s Nearby? (Toilet Co-location with Urban Services)

Now let’s zoom out.

This heat matrix shows how toilets tend to “stick” to certain services—schools, parks, transit hubs, government buildings, etc.

Some relationships are strong, others barely exist. These patterns tell us a lot about planning priorities.

Ask yourself:

Is the presence of a toilet just luck, or a sign of institutional logic (or neglect)?

Can cross-agency partnerships fill in the gaps?

Fig. 3: Affinity heat matrix between NYC public toilets and other domain categories

Hover to check detailed similarity score. (Max = 1.0)

Step 3: But… Is It Even Open? (24-Hour Toilet Access Clock)

For toilet seekers:

A toilet nearby is great—unless it’s locked.

This circular chart shows when toilets are actually open, grouped by who runs them (e.g., Parks Dept, libraries, etc.).

Some are daytime only. Some skip weekends. Some might save your night out.

For researchers & explorers:

This is where things get juicy.

Overlay this with the buffer zones (Step 1), and you may discover “invisible deserts”—places that look covered, but aren’t open when people need them most.

Weekends, evenings, holidays—who’s really being served?

Select Day to switch week days
Hover over a color block for more details
Click and hold to zoom into an area
Double-click to reset

Toilets aren’t just dots on a map—they’re part of a living, timed, institutional network.

And sometimes… the network forgets you exist at 11:45 PM.