Crunch For NYC Restroom Access Is A ‘Crisis' For Taxi, Uber Drivers — Especially Women

By Jose Martinez, The City

Sept. 1, 2026, 3:59 p.m.

For-hire drivers in New York City pleaded at a public hearing Tuesday for expanded access to parking while on the road, saying the search for restroom relief can be especially draining for women who get behind the wheel.

“Some women drivers at some point have said, ‘Ooh, do we have to wear diapers?’” Michele Dottin, an Uber driver since 2016, told The City Reporter. “It’s just how it can get because we want to make sure we don’t have an accident with a passenger in the car.”

Taxi and app-based drivers’ latest push for places where they can temporarily station their vehicles came as the city Department of Transportation weighs whether to approve a measure allowing for-hire motorists to feed the meter for up to three hours at 13,000 commercial metered spaces in the city.

At Tuesday’s virtual hearing, transportation officials heard from drivers who said the shortage of available spaces can lead to long hunts for parking and embarrassment for the growing number of female operators licensed by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Drivers said they frequently encounter resistance from business owners who are unwilling to open up their facilities or, in some cases, require a purchase to be made.

“They barely let us use the bathroom anywhere in the city and it has caused me a lot of health issues by not being able to use the bathroom in public places,” testified Yeldy Hernandez, a TLC-licensed driver since 2014.

‘You’re Losing Money’

There are currently 151 taxi-only spots south of 60th Street in Manhattan, with another 137 spaces within the central business district that are also open to Uber and Lyft drivers. The spaces are within so-called relief stands that allow drivers to park and exit their vehicles for up to one hour.

TLC data shows there are nearly 88,000 drivers for the app-based companies, compared to 13,000 for yellow taxis and just over 500 for green cabs, creating added competition for rest spaces.

The nonprofit Independent Drivers Guild, which represents Uber and Lyft drivers, said that amounts to a serious shortfall for motorists from the app-based companies, which had close to 21 million trips in June, according to the commission. Yellow taxis had 3.8 million trips, the TLC numbers show.

Moira Muntz, an adviser to the Drivers Guild, which has for a decade advocated for increased restroom access, called the parking spot dearth a “crisis.”

“If you’re in Manhattan and you suddenly need a bathroom, you have two choices: park illegally and pray you don’t get a ticket, or hope you can hold it long enough to leave the city entirely,” she said in a statement. “Either way, you’re losing money.”

If the Transportation Department approves access to commercial metered spaces for a one-year pilot program, the agency will then have to decide whether to make it permanent after an initial trial, which would end in July 2028.

Drivers licensed by the TLC testified they can’t wait on the extra spaces.

“This is far, far, far beyond necessary to us,” Larbi Aitabou said. “Too often there is nowhere to park, you have to go around the block for 20 to 30 minutes to find a spot and that spot is still illegal for you to park in.”

Could Self-Driving Cars Complicate the Picture?

The potential for self-driving for-hire vehicles eventually arriving in the city adds an extra wrinkle to the matter. The head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance said any parking spaces for TLC-licensed vehicles would have to be clearly marked for those operated by people.

A pair of permits granted by the city last year allowed Waymo to test its autonomous vehicle technology on eight cars in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The permits expired at the end of March.

“This cannot become a loophole in the future for companies like Waymo or even Uber that seek to have autonomous vehicles and use these spots for maintenance of the car,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance.

Drivers and their advocates framed the parking issue as one of human dignity, especially for women operators.

Dottin, an Uber driver since 2016, said male drivers — who make up 94% of TLC-licensed operators — have more tools at their disposal whenever nature calls.

“They pull a water bottle or a big bottle out, and they can give it a go,” she said. “We can’t do that; there’s no way for us to do that. So we have to have a space; we have to have a building.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.