Unlocked subway potties key to riders

[Trainspotter 0]

Unlocked subway potties key to riders

GEE-WHIZ, THANKS!

 

Understanding transit workers in the Union Square subway station were No. 1 with straphangers after relieved riders found typically locked bathrooms open during the steamy weekend.

 

"I was like, 'Yes!'" said one woman with a bursting bladder who rejoiced to find an open women's bathroom - despite a sign on the door claiming it should be locked overnight.

 

"When we usually come here, it's closed."

 

MTA policy calls for bathrooms to be closed Saturday and Sunday from midnight to 5 a.m. for cleaning.

 

But at Union Square over the weekend the doors were ajar, giving grateful riders nighttime access to the potty.

 

An MTA employee working at the station said the rules had been temporarily set aside because of high customer traffic - and desperate riders - during "prom season."

 

"They're open so people can use them," said the employee, who didn't give his name.

 

Zariah Washington, a 17-year-old student from East New York, Brooklyn, said the MTA's closure policy makes little sense.

 

"It's dumb. You can't control when you have to use the bathroom," Washington said.

 

Other riders, however, said the all-night access comes with risk.

 

"A guy could rape a girl. It's reasonable they want it closed," said Melissa Lau, a 20-year-old Brooklyn College student. "God forbid somebody's in there."

 

From: - June 11, 2008

[Ben Kabak 1]

The way the Daily News covers these stories bothers me sometimes. Melissa Lau's statement is an overreaction, and it just gives our subway system a bad name. The system's safer than ever, and people still walk around scared of getting attacked in bathrooms on an everyday basis.