Meet Best Exit: know which exit has a clean restroom before you take it

Every road trip has the same moment. Someone in the car needs a restroom, the next exit is two miles away, and the sign shows three gas station logos. You pick one, take the exit, and hope.

Best Exit is built to take the hope out of it. It's an iPhone app that follows the interstate you're on, looks at every stop ahead, and tells you which one has the restroom worth stopping for, before you take the exit.

#Why the sign isn't enough

The logo on a highway sign tells you whose gasoline is in the tanks, not who runs the store. Two stations with the same sign can be nothing alike inside. The company behind the counter is a much better clue, and the best clue of all is a driver who stopped there last week.

Best Exit uses both. Every stop starts with an estimate based on who runs it, always outlined and marked est. so it's never mistaken for a rating. As drivers rate a stop, their reviews take over, with recent ones counting most. Men's, women's, unisex, and family restrooms are rated separately, because they can be very different at the same place.

#What it does on the road

• Up ahead. Open the app on a covered interstate and it shows every stop ahead, with the best one for you at the top: which exit, how far, and why.
• Spoken heads-ups. About 10 minutes and 2 minutes before the best stop, it tells you, even with the screen locked. The best stop also stays on your Lock Screen, and on CarPlay.
• Picked for you. Set the restroom you use, and whether you're traveling with kids or pets, need an accessible restroom, or are driving late. Pick the brands you like, and the ones you'd rather skip.
• From the exit and back. Take the exit and it shows the way to the door, then the way back onto the interstate in the direction you were heading.
• Rest areas, too. Rest areas and service plazas show their restrooms and amenities, from pet areas to playgrounds.
• Works offline. Exits and places are on your phone, so it keeps working in rural dead zones.

Here's what a stop looks like. This is Wally's in Valley Park, on I-44 just west of St. Louis:

EXIT274 Bowles Avenue I-44 westbound · Valley Park, MO · mile 18 Best bet Wally’s 5.0 Men's · 1 review · 1 mo ago Gas 5 · Food 14

#Ratings from people who were there

When you get back on the highway after a stop, Best Exit asks how it was. If your phone is locked, a quiet notification waits for you. A few taps rate the restroom you used: the toilet, the sink, the floor, and whether it's for customers only or needs a key. It takes about ten seconds.

You can only rate a stop the app saw you make, so ratings come from drivers who were actually there, not from someone with a grudge or a stake in the business. And there's no account: nothing to sign up for, and your location stays on your phone. The only thing sent is the ratings you choose to make.

#Where it works

Every interstate in the lower 48 states and Washington, D.C., from I-2 to I-99, plus the loops and spurs around their cities. You can also browse any exit on the website, and share it with the people you're traveling with.

#Help the driver behind you

On launch day, most stops are still estimates. That's the part only drivers can change. Every rating makes the next driver's pick better, and on a quiet stretch of highway, yours might be the only one.

So the next time you stop, take ten seconds and rate it. The driver behind you will thank you.

How was your stop? Rate the restroom in about ten seconds. Rate

Stopped here? Rate the restroom.

Reviews come from the Best Exit iPhone app. It asks right after you stop, so scores come from people who were just there.

Rate it in the app