New solar-powered portable bathrooms arrive in Queens with digital entry and 10-minute limit

# What happened

# Where the Queens units will be The four Queens locations named by the city are:

• Astoria Boulevard South and 31st Street
• Northern Boulevard and 31st Street
• Northern Boulevard and 54th Street
• 34th Avenue and 64th Street

Two units — Northern Boulevard and 54th Street, and 34th Avenue and 64th Street — were reported operational. All four are within Community Board 1.

# How the units work The Throne Labs units are "self-contained," meaning they don't require hookups to water, sewer or power. They run on solar power and can be relocated or removed as community needs change. The company advertises multiple daily cleanings and tracks usage to manage service frequency.

• People without smartphones are provided "tap cards." Each restroom has a partner location (a local business) that holds and distributes tap cards to walk-in users. For the Queens unit at 34th Avenue and 64th Street, the cards are stored at World's Borough Bookshop.

Inside the unit, users hear a recorded welcome and instructions, including a Spanish version. A countdown-style reminder occurs around the midpoint of use.

# Time limit and monitoring Throne Labs enforces a 10-minute maximum usage time for each stall. The company states that the time limit discourages extended stays, preserves availability, and acts as a safety measure for potential medical emergencies. According to Throne Labs' published data, 81% of network users finish visits in under five minutes.

Afterward, users receive a text asking them to rate cleanliness on a 1–3 scale. The company says its team cleans units on average every 11–16 uses depending on traffic.

# Why these locations were chosen Transportation said sites were selected based on a combination of equity, accessibility, transit needs and operational feasibility. The 17 units were distributed across boroughs to the extent possible. Florence Koulouris, district manager for Community Board 1, said the area was chosen as the pilot for this program and noted that every district gets opportunities to pilot different initiatives.

# Context and precedent This initiative follows a different public-bathroom effort by the previous mayor, who spent $5 million to install five park bathrooms across the boroughs. The current plan prioritizes a larger footprint at lower per-unit infrastructure cost by using high-end portable units that don't require hookups.

# What to watch next The remaining two Queens locations were expected to be installed in the weeks after the report. Practical issues to observe include how well partner locations manage tap-card distribution, whether the cleaning schedule keeps pace with use, and how the 10-minute limit affects different user groups.

# Bottom line The city is testing a distributed, digital-entry public restroom model in Queens and other boroughs that trades permanent infrastructure for relocatable, solar-powered units. The approach increases the number of public restrooms but relies on smartphone-based access and a short per-use time cap.