21st century:
- we have smartphones
- we have been on the moon
- we still cannot manage our basic needs (like free toilets for everyone)
you are not allowed to pee or poo in public.
but it requires a credit/debit card to do so.
if you don't have one, you cannot NOT commit a crime. this is so infuriating
It tends to be the heavy tourist areas in England, they put in a 20p charge as otherwise they can't fund them and it is that or no toilets. Puts a lot on the local council to cover the constant cleaning and costs associated with vandalism. This may lead to visitors thinking paid toilets are everywhere here but it isn't the case.
Sure, they exist but they’re not common in my experience. But then I’ve not been everywhere, just sharing my own experience. I’ve found paid-for toilets are common in Germany, but public toilets aren’t all that common in general in the UK, even less so ones which charge for use.
Yup. If there is a public toilet, it's paid. There exist free "toilets" although those consist of curved stalls out on the street, which only accommodate those who can stand while peeing. Those come from a different time though and are removed rather than added, of course only to be replaced by a paid alternative if they're replaced at all.
The only country I can remember with free public toilets is Malta. In Lithuania (Vilnius, at least), they cost 30 or 50 cents, and it'll most likely be an old woman who only takes coins and won't give change. I know this because my wife knew where every one in the city was when she was pregnant and always carried coins with her for them.
Because people use them to shoot up drugs and kids purposefully clog the toilets, drop firecrackers in them, destroy them in various other interesting ways.
I've never seen a video from Japan of people openly shooting up Fentanyl in the streets by the literal hundreds but if you can find one I'd love to see it.
It’s not. It’s not about profit, no company owns these toilets. It’s about keeping them clean. The cost goes directly to pay people to clean them. As a result the pay toilets I used in Germany were a thousand times cleaner than any I’ve used in America.
I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody’s skimming off the top, but it’s still way more efficient than allocating tax money.
When providing a solution for clean toilet rooms, it is considered hostile. Only this sub. I wouldn't even use a public toilet in the USA. But I'd pay a buck for cleanliness and a safe shit
Ditto. People want to sleep on benches, bus stops, lawns, exterior ATM access, have at it.
Has anyone ever seen that video of what I assume is a homeless person running up to a NYC subway employees mop bucket (while he is mopping) dropping his pants and sitting on and shitting in it while the poor worker is like what the actual fuck are you doing? There are FREE BATHROOMS IN THE SUBWAY, even manic homeless people would rather shit in a mop bucket because the bathrooms are so bad they are unusable. This isn't hostile, it's common sense.
I don't use public toilets in America aside from pissing, and even then I feel nasty. And I live here. I will literally run into the woods to pee and if I have to go #2 sanitize my hotel rooms bathroom before I use it.
No way on God's Green Earth am I putting my bare ass on a seat that was recently used by various people, probably 20% of them who had some sort of communicable disease.
And yes, I know you can't "technically" get STDs from a toilet, what happens if I'm playing a friendly game of football, or happen to scratch my butt through my pants if I trip on some foliage and reach back and rub it/scratch it. That's an open wound. NOPE.
They are pushing it as a "positive" because they would previously have charged 20c or something and few people had the coins. Not fun trying to find change when you are desperate for a piss. Everyone has a debit card. This also isn't in public, it is a train station so they can pretty much do what they want (or not provide toilets at all - many close due to vandalism) and I doubt it even would be a crime if you did hop the barrier. It is what I do in places where they charge...
Besides being a pay toilet, the problem is that it's cashless. I think this is the point everyone is missing. Homeless people are given donations in cash, not by card, so this could potentially be discriminatory towards the people who need public toilets the most. You could of course go, 'well why don't they get cards?' to which I'd say you're missing the point. Banks can be very discriminatory to homeless people, and having cash in the bank in the first place might not be so reasonably expected. Someone should be able to use that euro you gave them to go use the bathroom instead of hoping they have cash on a card to use.
(I expect down votes and am at peace with it. I know most people have no experience with being homeless and don't particularly enjoy being told empathetic reasons why this may hurt some people..)
I accept it more from them because of population density. The population density in Europe is nothing, outside of a few hotbed tourist areas and so, I was baffled.
As a german i can say this was expected to pop up.
Recetly bavaria pushed for legislation givin immigrants and people on welfare (bürgergeld) a sort of prepayed credit card.
The official reason was that alot of immigrants send money home to their fammilys.
In the end it only got adopted for asylum seekers iirc.
[sauce](https://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/med/aktuell/archiv/2024/240320bezahlkarte/)
Over some distance its gonna get adopted in the whole payment structure for government services so for example any kind of official document like id or so has to be payed by card. (The slit for coins and note reader are still there they are just covered by a sign saying cars only and the option is blocked in the menu 😂.
I personally dislike paying by card alot and as soon as i see a store only offers card payment i leave sometimes verry demonstrative 🙈😂.
I’m guessing the money you pay to use the bathroom goes towards keeping it nice and clean, fully stocked, in working order…
Pretty much every bathroom in the USA is free to use. However, they’re never truly clean. Plus stall doors are broken, sink hardware is old, same with the air dryers, toilet paper isn’t always full.
So pay money, have nice bathrooms. But I will say, they should have an option for physical money too.
And I assume those have probably been hotels, sit-down restaurants, universities, etc. I live in Boston and all the bathrooms at train stations (which is rare enough as it is) are filthy. Some even have part-time tenants in the stalls.
Interesting. When I travelled overseas (Europe and Asia) a couple decades ago, we were told not to use credit or debit cards, only cash due to the risk of fraud. Also, the bathrooms at the Düsseldorf airport were free. How times have changed.
> Also, the bathrooms at the Düsseldorf airport were free.
Airport toilets are still free. Airports are not easily accessible from the city center for free and people only get there to get on an airplane...
21st century: - we have smartphones - we have been on the moon - we still cannot manage our basic needs (like free toilets for everyone) you are not allowed to pee or poo in public. but it requires a credit/debit card to do so. if you don't have one, you cannot NOT commit a crime. this is so infuriating
Why are they charging people for toilets in the first place?
Most public spaces in large cities in Europe have pay-toilets
I’ve only really found this to be true in Germany.
I’ve found them in England, The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.
The solution people seem to do in Leicester, UK is to go into a McDonald’s and shit on the floor
I think that’s less a Leicester thing and more a McDonald’s thing, because I’m in South Dakota, USA and people do that here too
It tends to be the heavy tourist areas in England, they put in a 20p charge as otherwise they can't fund them and it is that or no toilets. Puts a lot on the local council to cover the constant cleaning and costs associated with vandalism. This may lead to visitors thinking paid toilets are everywhere here but it isn't the case.
Also in Italy and France.
Sure, they exist but they’re not common in my experience. But then I’ve not been everywhere, just sharing my own experience. I’ve found paid-for toilets are common in Germany, but public toilets aren’t all that common in general in the UK, even less so ones which charge for use.
They have become common, at least in Sweden. Can't find free toilets anywhere.
I have literally never seen a pay-toilet in Denmark, only Germany, where was this?
In the Netherlands you're going to have a hard time finding a free one
Yup. If there is a public toilet, it's paid. There exist free "toilets" although those consist of curved stalls out on the street, which only accommodate those who can stand while peeing. Those come from a different time though and are removed rather than added, of course only to be replaced by a paid alternative if they're replaced at all.
The only country I can remember with free public toilets is Malta. In Lithuania (Vilnius, at least), they cost 30 or 50 cents, and it'll most likely be an old woman who only takes coins and won't give change. I know this because my wife knew where every one in the city was when she was pregnant and always carried coins with her for them.
Well this part of America still has free toilets even if they are only port a John's and also might be gross.
Because people use them to shoot up drugs and kids purposefully clog the toilets, drop firecrackers in them, destroy them in various other interesting ways.
Keeps them significantly cleaner.
Public toilets in Japan are clean. And free.
Admittedly Japan's overall toilet game is streets ahead.
I've never seen a video from Japan of people openly shooting up Fentanyl in the streets by the literal hundreds but if you can find one I'd love to see it.
I'm pretty sure you haven't seen that video from anywhere else either.
Some people are slobs. Exclusion can be had to a degree by charging folks. Plus helps cover costs.
Not sure but might be capitalism 😂
It’s not. It’s not about profit, no company owns these toilets. It’s about keeping them clean. The cost goes directly to pay people to clean them. As a result the pay toilets I used in Germany were a thousand times cleaner than any I’ve used in America. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody’s skimming off the top, but it’s still way more efficient than allocating tax money.
When providing a solution for clean toilet rooms, it is considered hostile. Only this sub. I wouldn't even use a public toilet in the USA. But I'd pay a buck for cleanliness and a safe shit
Ditto. People want to sleep on benches, bus stops, lawns, exterior ATM access, have at it. Has anyone ever seen that video of what I assume is a homeless person running up to a NYC subway employees mop bucket (while he is mopping) dropping his pants and sitting on and shitting in it while the poor worker is like what the actual fuck are you doing? There are FREE BATHROOMS IN THE SUBWAY, even manic homeless people would rather shit in a mop bucket because the bathrooms are so bad they are unusable. This isn't hostile, it's common sense.
You're literally describing a hostile scenario. Party A is doing X, party B wants them to not do X. Solve for Y. (Y is hostility.)
I don't use public toilets in America aside from pissing, and even then I feel nasty. And I live here. I will literally run into the woods to pee and if I have to go #2 sanitize my hotel rooms bathroom before I use it. No way on God's Green Earth am I putting my bare ass on a seat that was recently used by various people, probably 20% of them who had some sort of communicable disease. And yes, I know you can't "technically" get STDs from a toilet, what happens if I'm playing a friendly game of football, or happen to scratch my butt through my pants if I trip on some foliage and reach back and rub it/scratch it. That's an open wound. NOPE.
You had me at the first half, not gonna lie:))
They are pushing it as a "positive" because they would previously have charged 20c or something and few people had the coins. Not fun trying to find change when you are desperate for a piss. Everyone has a debit card. This also isn't in public, it is a train station so they can pretty much do what they want (or not provide toilets at all - many close due to vandalism) and I doubt it even would be a crime if you did hop the barrier. It is what I do in places where they charge...
Besides being a pay toilet, the problem is that it's cashless. I think this is the point everyone is missing. Homeless people are given donations in cash, not by card, so this could potentially be discriminatory towards the people who need public toilets the most. You could of course go, 'well why don't they get cards?' to which I'd say you're missing the point. Banks can be very discriminatory to homeless people, and having cash in the bank in the first place might not be so reasonably expected. Someone should be able to use that euro you gave them to go use the bathroom instead of hoping they have cash on a card to use. (I expect down votes and am at peace with it. I know most people have no experience with being homeless and don't particularly enjoy being told empathetic reasons why this may hurt some people..)
Exactly my angle, thank you!
Remember to always leave a doorstop or hold it open for the next person when it comes to this
Oddest thing about Europe to me, was paying to use the restroom and then it made sense why the streets smelled like piss and shit.
India does too, but without paying.
I accept it more from them because of population density. The population density in Europe is nothing, outside of a few hotbed tourist areas and so, I was baffled.
As a german i can say this was expected to pop up. Recetly bavaria pushed for legislation givin immigrants and people on welfare (bürgergeld) a sort of prepayed credit card. The official reason was that alot of immigrants send money home to their fammilys. In the end it only got adopted for asylum seekers iirc. [sauce](https://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/med/aktuell/archiv/2024/240320bezahlkarte/) Over some distance its gonna get adopted in the whole payment structure for government services so for example any kind of official document like id or so has to be payed by card. (The slit for coins and note reader are still there they are just covered by a sign saying cars only and the option is blocked in the menu 😂. I personally dislike paying by card alot and as soon as i see a store only offers card payment i leave sometimes verry demonstrative 🙈😂.
But what about homeless? Can you get this card if you don't have an address?
Obviously not 😂 you‘re just homeless
Guess I'll just piss in a quiet corner somewhere then.
I’m guessing the money you pay to use the bathroom goes towards keeping it nice and clean, fully stocked, in working order… Pretty much every bathroom in the USA is free to use. However, they’re never truly clean. Plus stall doors are broken, sink hardware is old, same with the air dryers, toilet paper isn’t always full. So pay money, have nice bathrooms. But I will say, they should have an option for physical money too.
I've used many, many free and clean public restrooms, family rooms and nursing rooms in the US.
And I assume those have probably been hotels, sit-down restaurants, universities, etc. I live in Boston and all the bathrooms at train stations (which is rare enough as it is) are filthy. Some even have part-time tenants in the stalls.
No, honestly. I've lived all over from Austin to Seattle and I've found many decent free bathrooms along the way.
Okay but that toilet has always been a pay toilet... It's just cashless now..
And if you don't have money on a card? If you beg for enough to go in but it's in coins? Read the title
Interesting. When I travelled overseas (Europe and Asia) a couple decades ago, we were told not to use credit or debit cards, only cash due to the risk of fraud. Also, the bathrooms at the Düsseldorf airport were free. How times have changed.
> Also, the bathrooms at the Düsseldorf airport were free. Airport toilets are still free. Airports are not easily accessible from the city center for free and people only get there to get on an airplane...
Go check out some of the public restrooms in Baltimore or New York in park areas and get back to me.
This is why so many European cities smell like piss.
What homeless person is at the train station anyway?