Why is it that pay-for-use public toilets are always the grimmest places imaginable?
Posted by Boxoffrogs99@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Now I resent having to pay for the privilege of performing one of the most basic human functions, and will nearly always just go find the nearest Spoons or something instead as you're never that far from one, but on the occasions where I have had to pay 20p or whatever it's like walking into the aftermath of an explosion at a sewage works
Most recently was in York, and there's no roll because it's all been used to clog up every single toilet, you're stood in a half inch deep puddle of standing piss, everything's been scribbled on in sharpie and the hand dryers don't work
Like if I'm going to have to pay, I'd expect that money then be put back into maintaining the place, you go to a public toilet block in the arse end of nowhere and they're immaculate, but in a city centre with easy access for cleaners/waste disposal/maintenance it's like they built the place and forgot about it
Not to mention I never have any change on me these days for those that don't have some kind of contactless option
InternationalRide5@reddit
The 20p (if it's an actual turnstile) is more to try to discourage illegal activity than to keep the place clean.
You need 61 people an hour paying their 20-pees to pay a toilet cleaner at minimum wage (not counting holiday, employer's NI, etc). If it's a peripatetic cleaner who goes round multiple sites then a van has to be provided which puts the cost up further.
pikantnasuka@reddit
There are pay for use toilets at the new bus station in Stockport but if you approach the staff and ask them to let you in without paying they will
As they pointed out to me themselves, very few people carry 20p coins or indeed any coins these days
Toilets should not be pay to use, public health matters as much now as it ever did
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
There's a new bus station in Stockport? I grew up in Marple and lived in Stockport until 2000 haven't been back since then so I'd imagine it's changed but did they move the bus station or just refurb it?
Pole_Calmer@reddit
Because capitalism. Nothing to see here. Move along.
urBestTrash@reddit
Lmao. Bro thinks capitalism is the reason why cretins piss on the toilet seat and floors in a public bathroom.
Prasiatko@reddit
Hence why they're clean in the famously not capitalist nation of Japan?
Away-Appointment-494@reddit
In Japan, public toilets are everywhere and are immaculate as well as free. I don’t understand why toilets are charged here, it is a basic human right
Smooth-Purchase1175@reddit
Same reason our roads are constantly full of potholes: we don't care, sadly. :'(
Next-Project-1450@reddit
All of ours have been shut as a result of 'antisocial behaviour' (aka perverts).
The last one I used before they nailed it shut was always relatively clean, but it stank of cigarette smoke all the time, and you know how bad that smells when mixed with the smells of the sanitiser blocks in the urinals.
The cubicles were always locked - could never figure out if someone was in there, or they were just out of order.
And I swear that every time I went in, there was the same old-ish guy with a carrier bag over his arm already standing at a urinal, and who was still standing at it after I'd finished, washed my hands, and left.
Oilfreeeggs@reddit
Urgh it was the same in Scarborough the other week . I don’t mind paying the 40p if it’s going to be clean . But public loos are just awful places that I try not use if I can help it .
I don’t understand the people that piss everywhere or just loo roll all over - what do they get out of it ?
In Germany you have to pay to use the loo everywhere even in like a McDonald’s but there is an attendant usually and they are very clean