Permanent sink + hydration station installed at North Hollywood Station

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Sink + hydration station at North Hollywood Station. Photo courtesy Outfront/JCDecaux.

In Los Angeles, the Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) is responsible for overseeing and managing the L.A. bus shelter program with Outfront/JCDecaux, and they have recently added a new amenity for riders who use North Hollywood Station — a permanent sink and hydration station. After one month in operation, the newly installed sink+hydration station has been working well and has received many positive reviews from users.

The sink was added through a public private partnership between the city of Los Angeles, StreetsLA, the office of Mayor Eric Garcetti and Outfront/JCDecaux. It’s certainly welcome given the pandemic and heat wave.

The amenities are located next to an existing Outfront/JCDecaux public toilet and smart bus shelter, which includes a USB charging port, free Wi-Fi and Metro real-time bus arrival information display.

The hydration station gives you the option of using the water fountain or refilling your own container. Photo courtesy Outfront/JCDecaux.

Outfront/JCDecaux is responsible for the design and ongoing operational costs of the new station, while the capital portion of the project was funded by StreetsLA. A second location is also being tested in Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

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8 replies ›

  2. Now, due to COVID, public water/drinking fountains (incl those in hosp) are shut down, so if the COVID situation persists, will the hydration be available?
    I dont understand why public water/drinking fountains are shut. If there’s a virus on the water fountain, the water will wash it off, right?

    • Uhh, water alone doesn’t kill any bacteria or viruses on your hands, Soap is the main killer there, so not sure why people think water alone kills viruses.

      • Soap doesn’t actually kill the virus, it cleanses it off the surface. To put it simply, the soap structure binds to the virus and the from soap scrubbing releases itself from the surface and flushes away. Stuff such as alcohol kills the virus, but the surface stays “dirty” of dead virus membranes. Kind of struck a nerve after hearing this slight inaccuracy so many times. What this means is that if we want to be sure that the fountain does not have active virus, I would suggest incorporating automatic UV sanitization, as it is unlikely people will be scrubbing away the virus to get water.

  3. If a simple faucet merits an entire blog post, imagine how much content we could get out of a restroom in every new station on Metro’s upcoming subway lines!

    (Sorry for the sassiness — I love reading The Source — but the argument to only have bathrooms in Union Station will only lead to more public urination on Metro facilities)