General Discussion

I have noticed that very few states operate public restrooms along the highways, and there's degrees. As a 30 something female traveling alone, I know which ones I trust (safety wise) and which ones I steer clear of. The government owned ones are either a 'rest stop' that has commercial space (fast food, convenience store, gas) or a private 'rest area' that typically has restrooms, (outdoor) picnic tables, and vending machines. For safety reasons, I avoid the latter.

However, in most states I've traveled in, there's no such thing as those. It's usually a truck stop type (Flying J, Pilot, etc) place or a McDonald's along the side of the highway (my general rule of thumb is I want to see the place from the highway for easy on/off access). I generally don't care as long as the bathrooms are clean.

In a city like New York, even places like McDonald's won't let you use the restrooms if you are not a customer (usually they're locked and you have to get a key from the cashier. When I went to the Women's March there this year, I (along with many) went at Penn Station upon arrival and purposely didn't consume any liquids as I knew there'd be no place to go. This is similar in most large cities (whereas if you stop by a suburban/rural McD's, they don't care). This is also a city where one TP company (Charmin?) did pop-up restrooms in Times Square. There's clearly a demand for more restrooms.