by nessus42 on 1/4/17, 10:07 PM
When I was in Paris, circa 2000, I came across some interesting pay toilets that were kind of like the Cadillacs of porto-potties. They were located on streets in nice shopping areas. You'd pay for the door to open. They had running water, but no water or fluid in the toilet bowl. Instead, the toilet was more like a concave shelf for peeing and/or pooping on.
When you were done, you'd leave through the door, which would lock behind you, and then for a minute or two, it would go through a self-cleaning cycle, making itself (putatively) spotless for the next customer.
They even had the same idea scaled up to entire motels. Near Lyon, I needed to catch 3 hours of zzz's before going to the airport. I found a motel called "Formule 1". It was a seemingly automated motel. You hardly ever saw an employee.
To park your car, you slid your credit card through a card reader at the parking lot gate, and it charged you $20 or so. You would be given a receipt with a combination number for the front door and for your room.
The bathrooms were down the hall from your room. They were somewhat similar to the fancy porto-poties. Though they also had showers in them. The shower was on a timer. When you left the bathroom, the door would lock behind you for a while, as it would go through its cleaning cycle.
France is strange!
by castratikron on 1/4/17, 9:44 PM
by z02d on 1/4/17, 10:15 PM
In my area of Germany, we have some places where public toilets are not available as desired.
Instead of build new ones, which are expensive, the local responsible persons found a nice solution.
They pay bars to let their toilets used. Bars and restaurants, who join this initiative get a sticker on the front door.
So you don't have to sneak inside to use the restrooms.
by zelos on 1/4/17, 9:44 PM
by gwern on 1/4/17, 9:55 PM
Having run into many public toilets and restrooms which were unusable because they were covered in feces or urine or had crazy homeless people in them harassing people (most recently, in December in Oxford, whose homeless are even worse than SF's, if you can believe it), I often wish I could pay to use a pay toilet. People value more what they pay for, it keeps out people who only want to trash them, and it can pay for amenities like automated washing.
by teilo on 1/4/17, 9:51 PM
When traveling in Germany, pay toilets were one of the things I liked. I don't like going into some place of business to use their toilet without buying something. It was actually cheaper for me to use a pay toilet. Furthermore, they were easy to find, clean, and well maintained.
by __derek__ on 1/4/17, 9:46 PM
This framing is ridiculous. The water, power, toilet paper, fixtures, etc., cost money to provide. Someone is always paying for the toilet.
by koube on 1/4/17, 9:49 PM
As with any ideology, I don't think this is one size fits all. The alternative to a paid bathroom isn't free bathrooms, it's no bathrooms. I think anyone who's lived a city that smells like piss, or anyone who's needed to take a piss when everything was closed, would love there to be paid bathrooms.
by jacalata on 1/4/17, 9:53 PM
I am very curious to know if the alternative toilets he uses are equally accessible to the poorer people he is advocating on behalf of. I know I can walk into any good hotel and be taken for a guest and probably directed to a bathroom, and I know that many others, especially homeless people, couldn't do so.
by burntrelish1273 on 1/5/17, 12:25 AM
by ythn on 1/4/17, 9:48 PM
Pay toilets are super annoying, and very common in Europe. Still, even if you are in NYC, it's hard to find a "free" toilet. Most of the time you have to go to a restaurant, buy something, and then you'll get the key.
by CarolineW on 1/7/17, 12:11 PM
It's probably too late for this comment to be seen and make a difference - it will sink to the bottom of the thread without a trace, but in case anyone is interested in reading more HN comments about this, it has been submitted again and is being discussed over here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13343542
by jdlyga on 1/4/17, 9:52 PM
I'm in the US, and I haven't seen a pay toilet since I was a little kid in the late 80s. What I have seen a lot especially in New York City are bathrooms for customers only. There are large areas of the city where public bathrooms are very scarce, and the only available ones are inside of businesses that require you to buy something before you can use the bathroom.
by iLemming on 1/5/17, 7:07 AM
Mr. Stallman, I'd like to invite you to San Francisco for an adventurous quest in search of paid toilets, or any kind of restrooms in this case - paid our whatever. You can even wear flowers in your hair.
by jeffehobbs on 1/4/17, 9:53 PM
Honestly, he's right.
by chanz on 1/4/17, 10:29 PM
Maybe a good solution for those who can't pay is to make them pay by time. As example I don't want to wait so I pay as example one euro/dollar. Someone who can't pay, just waits 3-5 minutes or pushes a button 50 times.
Sounds stupid, but this could work in my opinion. Anyone who has enough money can afford to pay, but is less likely to mess with a button or wait 5 mins. A homeless on the other hand, could at least wait instead of being denied the access at all.
by gdulli on 1/4/17, 9:49 PM
I don't know where pay toilets even exist, or if they're public or private. Wouldn't the alternatives be the absence of a given toilet or a tax-funded toilet? If the latter, the poor could pay disproportionately due to various tax dodging avenues available only to the rich.
by unabridged on 1/4/17, 10:03 PM
Instead of pay toilets, how about a thumbprint or face scan. Take pics of the bathroom before and after every use. Everyone can use the toilet for free, until they are caught abusing it. Then they can pay a fine or take a personal responsibility class to get the privilege back.
by anonyymus on 1/4/17, 10:02 PM
If you don't care about privacy, then world is your toilet
.. or when you don't have the change for a paid toilet and you really really have to do it
by splawn on 1/4/17, 9:54 PM
Don't get him started on free vs open source toilets. =P
I had no idea this was even a thing. Doesn't seem justifiable to me, it just seems cruel.
by esaym on 1/4/17, 10:21 PM
Here I sit broken hearted....
by wonder_er on 1/4/17, 9:53 PM
Yikes. Who pays for the free toilets, then?
I love pay toilets. Most of them are kept clean, and I don't consider finding a clean, available toilet to be a right.
I've paid for others to use toilets, and I'll keep doing so.
"Don't let people pay for things because poor people might not be able to afford it" is offensive to "poor" people.
Oh well. If it makes him feel like he's championing a cause...
