SAN FRANCISCO PIT STOP 

Where neighborhood challenges meet civic pride.

 

NEIGHBORHOODS

You can find Pit Stops in 24 locations around San Francisco.

 
 

LOCATIONS AND HOURS

Bayview

  • Mendell Plaza – Mon-Fri – 9am to 5pm 

 

Castro

  • Market and Castro streets (JCDecaux) – Open 24 hours

  • Market and Church streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

 

Civic Center

  • Grove and Larkin streets (JCDecaux) - Daily - 7am to 8pm

 

The Embarcadero

  • Embarcadero Plaza (JCDecaux) - Daily - 9am to 8pm

​

Haight 

  • Haight and Buena Vista Ave West – Mon-Fri – 12pm to 7pm 

  • Stanyan and Waller streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

 

Lower Polk

  • Myrtle and Larkin streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

 

Mid-Market

  • Hallidie Plaza  (JCDecaux) – Daily – 7am to 8pm

  • U.N. Plaza  (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

 

Mission

  • 16th and Capp streets – Mon-Fri – 11am to 6pm 

  • 16th and Mission streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

  • 18th and Mission streets  – Mon-Fri – 12:30pm to 7:30pm

  • 24th and Mission streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

​

North Beach

  • Washington Square at Union St. (JCDecaux) – Daily – 9am to 8pm

​

Ocean Beach

  • Great Highway near Beach Chalet – Mon-Fri – 12 noon to 7 pm

 

Outer Sunset

  • Judah and La Playa streets (Rec Park) – Daily – 9am to 4pm 

​

SoMa​​

  • 6th and Jessie streets  – Open 24 hours

  • Victoria Manalo Draves Park (Rec Park) – Mon-Fri – 8am to 4pm; Sat-Sun – 9am to 5pm

 

Tenderloin

  • 133 Golden Gate Ave. – Mon-Fri – 2pm to 9pm; Sat – 9am to 4pm

  • 101 Hyde St.  – Mon-Fri – 1:30pm to 8:30pm; Sat – 9:30am to 4:30pm

  • Eddy St. and Jones St. (JCDecaux) – Open 24 hours

  • 388 Ellis St. – Mon-Fri – 9am – 4pm; Saturday 9am to 4pm

  • Eddy St. and Larkin St. – Mon-Sat – 9:30am - 4:30pm

 

MAP

THE PIT STOP STORY

San Francisco Public Works’ pioneering Pit Stop program provides clean and safe public toilets, as well as used-needle receptacles and dog waste stations, in San Francisco's most impacted neighborhoods. All the Pit Stop facilities are staffed by paid attendants who help ensure that the bathrooms are well maintained and used for their intended purpose.

​

The units have running water, soap and hand towels, and are maintained to a standard where parents and guardians would feel comfortable bringing their children.

​

The program began in San Francisco’s Tenderloin in 2014 at three sites, sparked by a plea from neighborhood middle schoolers who were fed up with having to carefully navigate around human waste on their walk to school. Today, the Pit Stop operates at 24 sites in 13 neighborhoods. Street-cleaning data drives the locations of the Pit Stops, putting them where they’re needed most.

​

The popular program, which was recognized by Harvard Kennedy School for innovation and serves as a national model deployed by other cities, provides an alternative to using our streets and sidewalks as a toilet.

 

The result:

  • People can take care of their bathroom needs with dignity

  • Neighborhoods are made more livable

  • Complaints about human waste in public spaces around the Pit Stop locations have gone down, which allows Public Works public cleaning crews to focus more attention on other hotspots.

 

Public Works partners with two nonprofit organizations that staff the Pit Stops, as part of a workforce development program for people who have faced barriers to employment. Hunters Point Family staffs 23 of the 24 Pit Stop locations. The Lower Polk Community Benefit District staffs the Pit Stop at Larkin and Myrtle streets.

​

The Pit Stop utilizes a mix of portable toilets and semi-permanent JCDecaux public toilet facilities. Pit Stop attendants also staff a park bathroom.

More than
1,500,000
flushes
 

IN THE NEWS