Since the Metro Light Rail opened at the end of last year, many Valley residents and visitors have turned to this new mode of transportation.
I opted to use the light rail this summer for my daily commute to-and-from downtown Phoenix for work.
I got a good price on an ASU U-Pass as a student, the light rail drops me off at a station across the street from work and I can skip out on rush hour traffic. Oh yeah, and I didn’t bring my car to Arizona this summer — so the light rail was my answer.
I’m usually plugged into my iPod on the trip, to avoid any uncomfortable conversations with strangers or transients on the train, although, the headset doesn’t always deter these situations. But I figure, you have to take the highs and the lows when it comes to public transport.
I can deal with the occasional person preaching about the fiery pits of hell, kids running up and down the train screaming and even being hit on by someone reeking of booze and who probably just woke up from a day’s sleep on the train. Like I said, the highs and lows.
However, what I can’t deal with is people using the light rail as a restroom.
As I said before, I have been riding the light rail twice a day, five days a week, since the end of May for my commute to work. I think I’ve logged enough hours as a fly on the wall of the light rail to share some of my observations.
On at least four different occasions, I have had the pleasure of finding an empty seat on an otherwise crowded train, only to realize that the reason seats were open in that section was because there was a huge puddle of urine pooled in the middle of the floor.
Maybe a kid had an accident on the train? It’s possible, but, from the size of the puddles I’ve seen, I would have to guess they were adults … who really had to go to the bathroom.
The day after I saw one of these accidents on the light rail floor, I was again on the light rail, relieved to see a dry floor. I sat down, plugged in the iPod and got ready for the 30-minute trip to work.
And then I smelled the overpowering stench of urine. I checked the light rail car I was in, and the floors were all dry. I’m just assuming here, but either the smell never came out the day before, despite being mopped up, or someone had peed in their seat. Even the blasting air conditioning circulating the light rail couldn’t cover that up.
I realize that there are not many restroom facilities along the light rail route. It’s an issue that I think should be addressed, and soon, to save people from opting to use the train as their own personal toilet and to save fellow riders, such as myself, from attempting to hold their breath from Tempe to Phoenix.
After doing some research, I found that earlier this year, Metro spokeswoman Hillary Foose said light-rail officials chose not to build public restrooms at stations to avoid attracting vandalism and other crime and to spare the expense of building and maintaining facilities.
Come on. Despite being disgusted by people urinating on the light-rail, with a lack of restrooms along the train route, I guess I can see their plight (although I by no means support the movement for public urination on public transport). Nature calls. Especially when local weather advisories put out excessive heat warnings in the Phoenix heat and urge residents to drink massive amounts of water.
So what it comes down to is, the Metro Light Rail officials need to address this problem and build some restrooms and toilet facilities.
Even some Porta Potties at the stations would do.
Making people hold it when they have to go sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me. This could be because I went to a high school where students were allotted a certain number of bathroom passes a week, which I’m sure has led to at least some of those students ending up with some kind of bladder problem or embarrassing moment in the classroom.
Final message? If you have to go, you have to go. But please, for the sake of sanitation and the sanity of your fellow light rail riders, go find a business along the light rail and sneak into their bathroom. Or worst case scenario? Find a bush. Just please, stop peeing on the light rail.
E-mail Shanen at shanen.lloyd@asu.edu
