SAN FRANCISCO PIT STOP 

Where neighborhood challenges meet civic pride.

  • Twitter Social Icon
  • Facebook Social Icon
  • YouTube Social Icon
  • Instagram Social Icon
 

PIT STOP SERVICES

needle.jpg

Universal Toilet Access

Safe Used Needle Disposal

Pet Waste Bags

NEIGHBORHOODS

You can find permanent Pit Stops in 22 locations around San Francisco.

​

In addition, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, another 13 staffed portable Pit Stops are temporarily available to augment the program.

 
 

LOCATIONS AND HOURS

HIGHLIGHTED LOCATIONS ARE TEMPORARY PUBLIC TOILETS AVAILABLE

FOR THE COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

 

Bayview-Hunters Point

  • Mendell Plaza – Open 24 hours

  • 2111 Jennings St. – Open 24 hours

​

Castro

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

  • Market and Church streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 7am to 7pm

​

Civic Center

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

​

The Embarcadero

  • Embarcadero Plaza (JCDecaux) - Daily – 7am to 7pm

​

Haight ​

  • Stanyan and Waller streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 7am to 7pm

  • Buena Vista Ave. and Haight St. – Mon-Fri – 11:30am to 6:30pm

-

Lower Polk

  • Myrtle and Larkin streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 7am to 7pm

-

Mid-Market

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

  • U.N. Plaza  (JCDecaux) – Open 24 hours

  • U.N. Plaza (near fountain) – Daily – 7am to 7pm

-

Mission

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

  • 16th and Mission streets (JCDecaux) – Open 24 hours

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

  • 24th and Mission streets (JCDecaux) – Daily – 7am to 7pm

  • 21st St. and Shotwell St. – Open 24 hours

  • 1645 Bryant St. – Daily – 7am to 7pm

  • 3100 26th St. – Daily – 7am to 7pm

  • Cesar Chavez and South Van Ness Ave. – Daily – 7am to 7pm

  • SFGH, near SE corner of Building 25 – Mon-Sun – 6am to 8pm

  • SFGH, near SE corner of Building 80/90 – Mon-Sun – 6am to 8pm

  • 885 Potrero Ave. – Mon-Fri – 7am - 2:30pm

  -

North Beach

  • Washington Square at Union St. (JCDecaux) – Daily – Daily – 7am to 7pm

-

Ocean Beach

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

-

Outer Sunset

  • Judah and La Playa streets (Rec Park) – Daily – 8am to 8pm

-

SoMa​​

  • 6th and Jessie streets – Open 24 hours

  • Victoria Manalo Draves Park (Rec Park) – Daily – 8am to 8pm

  • Merlin and Harrison – Daily – 7am to 7pm

-

Tenderloin​

  • Turk and Hyde streets – Open 24 hours

  • Eddy and Jones streets (JCDecaux) – Open 24 hours

  • 388 Ellis St. – Open 24 hours

  • Eddy and Larkin streets – Open 24 hours

  • 474 O’Farrell St. – Open 24 hours

  • 180 Jones St. (two units) – Open 24 hours

 

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 48 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 manages the Pit Stop program. Four nonprofits are under contract to staff them: Civic, Hunters Point Family, Mission Neighborhood Centers and Urban Alchemy. JCDecaux funds the staffing for nine locations in the program. 

Collectively, the Pit Stops get 300,000-plus uses a year, averaging one flush every two minutes. More than 8,700 used hypodermic needles are disposed of properly every year. Steam-cleaning requests in Pit Stop areas have dropped by a third.

More than
1,500,000
flushes
 

IN THE NEWS