4 ms·

In civilized countries, public toilets in places like highway rest-stops and train stations get 24 hour maintenance. The best way to fund that is to have every

In civilized countries, public toilets in places like highway rest-stops and train stations get 24 hour maintenance. The best way to fund that is to have everyone pay a nominal fee to use the facilities.

Meph504 5y ago
The fault in this logic, is that rest stops in many places are on large highways and interstate systems, which is nice for travelers but when truck drivers are making long haul deliveries, when they can drive they want to drive, and not stop at rest areas except for required break time. The real issue comes in when they have to sit in a shipping yard for 10 hours waiting for their cargo to be loaded, or a bay open to be unloaded. This is where the local facilities issue comes in. And rest stops are effectively useless for local deliver people (ups/fedex/amazon/etc..) because rarely do their routs take them on the roads to make them accessible. And lastly, the number of public rest stops in the US has plummeted with the increase in gas stations, and state budget cuts. On top of all this, its just the way the routing, and time constraints on delivers are set up, they don't allow for going off route for 10 to 20 minutes to find and use a public toilet. The problem is solvable, but it isn't about available facilities, its about being fair to workers and not making using the rest room cost them money, or penalize them in review.
jdsully 5y ago
The US has a good network of public run rest stops on the interstates. The bathrooms aren’t spotless but have always worked in a pinch. There’s one every few hundred miles. Truckers prefer commercial truck stops but I usually see a few at the public ones when I stop there.
- clem 5y ago
  The network of rest stops varies. In Washington State, they recently closed a line of them along the I-5 due to vandalism and a lack of employees to maintain them.
  - coryrc 5y ago
    There was a certain small population causing that damage, one attracted by non-enforcement of vagrancy, littering, and hard drug laws in Seattle. Same group which has denied us shared public commons.
mdip 5y ago
> The best way to fund that is to have everyone pay a nominal fee to use the facilities. IIRC, pay toilets are not a thing in the US (they are not legal in much of the US). And I don't entirely know where I stand on it, personally[0]. On the one hand, allow everyone to charge for toilet usage and you might eventually see bathrooms becoming a profit-center for suffering retail establishments. On the other hand, retail/restaurants (especially in cities) disallow non-customer usage and it's similar in retail (if they're offered at all where its not required by law). I would have zero problem with "pay toilets" that are free standing, separated from retail/restaurants. Frankly, I don't see any other way it would work in the US -- free public toilets provided by government/government-related entities (like subways/city buses) are universally terrible where I live (either non-existent, non-functional or so nasty as to be non-existent).
- dkarp 5y ago
  I've heard about a system in Germany where local government pays restaurants to allow the public to use their toilets. It's cheaper for the government than erecting public toilets and covers extra cleaning costs for the restaurants. https://www.die-nette-toilette.de/ https://www.die-nette-toilette.de/
jasode 5y ago
>, public toilets in places like highway rest-stops and train stations get 24 hour maintenance. Yes that's logical. In any case, I was replying to a specific point by the gp (tda) about workplaces denying bathrooms to truckers and why it happens. It isn't just a random act of cruelty but the fact that office workers don't like being abused by some drivers that leave them with a disgusting mess. The point is that the dehumanization is a 2-way phenomenon. Truckers don't like to be disrespected by the office banning bathroom use. And likewise, the office workers don't like being disrespected by (a minority of) truckers and be forced to clean after them. In other words, there's an implied social contract of being considerate to others regarding shared bathroom use, and a minority of truckers break that contract. This is what causes the office to deny bathrooms to drivers. Office workers don't want to be unwilling janitors to clean the toilets because of drivers who don't care. Yes, more public bathrooms on highways that are constantly cleaned would lessen this problem.

Meph504 5y ago

The fault in this logic, is that rest stops in many places are on large highways and interstate systems, which is nice for travelers but when truck drivers are making long haul deliveries, when they can drive they want to drive, and not stop at rest areas except for required break time. The real issue comes in when they have to sit in a shipping yard for 10 hours waiting for their cargo to be loaded, or a bay open to be unloaded. This is where the local facilities issue comes in. And rest stops are effectively useless for local deliver people (ups/fedex/amazon/etc..) because rarely do their routs take them on the roads to make them accessible. And lastly, the number of public rest stops in the US has plummeted with the increase in gas stations, and state budget cuts. On top of all this, its just the way the routing, and time constraints on delivers are set up, they don't allow for going off route for 10 to 20 minutes to find and use a public toilet. The problem is solvable, but it isn't about available facilities, its about being fair to workers and not making using the rest room cost them money, or penalize them in review.

jdsully 5y ago

The US has a good network of public run rest stops on the interstates. The bathrooms aren’t spotless but have always worked in a pinch. There’s one every few hundred miles. Truckers prefer commercial truck stops but I usually see a few at the public ones when I stop there.

clem 5y ago
The network of rest stops varies. In Washington State, they recently closed a line of them along the I-5 due to vandalism and a lack of employees to maintain them.
- coryrc 5y ago
  There was a certain small population causing that damage, one attracted by non-enforcement of vagrancy, littering, and hard drug laws in Seattle. Same group which has denied us shared public commons.

mdip 5y ago

> The best way to fund that is to have everyone pay a nominal fee to use the facilities. IIRC, pay toilets are not a thing in the US (they are not legal in much of the US). And I don't entirely know where I stand on it, personally[0]. On the one hand, allow everyone to charge for toilet usage and you might eventually see bathrooms becoming a profit-center for suffering retail establishments. On the other hand, retail/restaurants (especially in cities) disallow non-customer usage and it's similar in retail (if they're offered at all where its not required by law). I would have zero problem with "pay toilets" that are free standing, separated from retail/restaurants. Frankly, I don't see any other way it would work in the US -- free public toilets provided by government/government-related entities (like subways/city buses) are universally terrible where I live (either non-existent, non-functional or so nasty as to be non-existent).

dkarp 5y ago
I've heard about a system in Germany where local government pays restaurants to allow the public to use their toilets. It's cheaper for the government than erecting public toilets and covers extra cleaning costs for the restaurants. https://www.die-nette-toilette.de/ https://www.die-nette-toilette.de/

jasode 5y ago

>, public toilets in places like highway rest-stops and train stations get 24 hour maintenance. Yes that's logical. In any case, I was replying to a specific point by the gp (tda) about workplaces denying bathrooms to truckers and why it happens. It isn't just a random act of cruelty but the fact that office workers don't like being abused by some drivers that leave them with a disgusting mess. The point is that the dehumanization is a 2-way phenomenon. Truckers don't like to be disrespected by the office banning bathroom use. And likewise, the office workers don't like being disrespected by (a minority of) truckers and be forced to clean after them. In other words, there's an implied social contract of being considerate to others regarding shared bathroom use, and a minority of truckers break that contract. This is what causes the office to deny bathrooms to drivers. Office workers don't want to be unwilling janitors to clean the toilets because of drivers who don't care. Yes, more public bathrooms on highways that are constantly cleaned would lessen this problem.