4 ms·

If that got me a reasonably clean and reasonably available location, that's money well spent. Cleaning and maintaining a restroom isn't free, and something nee

If that got me a reasonably clean and reasonably available location, that's money well spent. Cleaning and maintaining a restroom isn't free, and something needs to pay for it. Highway rest stops are usually pretty clean, but they are paid for with tolls/very high gas taxes.

saturn8601 2y ago
This is anecdotal but in my experience the restrooms still suck and are poorly maintained (This was my experience in Hamburg and Amsterdam in 2023). What is even worse is that there seems to be a little recourse to correct it in the short term. There isn't a "Free market" of toilet companies because the same firm seems to capture all the toilets in a given area. So you have the worst of all worlds, you have to pay to use a poorly maintained restroom and there is little you can do about it...at least as a traveler not familiar with the local customs. Maybe locals can enact some improvement.
- thwarted 2y ago
  Tragedy of the Commons Ruins Everything Around Me. When it comes to restrooms, some people can not help not help themselves and leave it in a significantly worse state, or use it for other purposes (like drug use). Maintaining restrooms is, on average, thankless responsibility, even though people would be thankful to find one.
  - saturn8601 2y ago
    Thats fine but if you are paying to have the restrooms maintained then the expectation should be different. Don't excuse a private company charging money to patrons and then providing poor service. If I want bad restrooms, I can have the government maintain it like in many places in the US.
chopin 2y ago
Germany has very high taxes and seems yet unable to maintain clean free restrooms. I can relate for countries with income taxes around 10%, but for taxes much higher than that free restrooms should be affordable. I currently visit Australia and it seems to be no problem here almost as good as Japan.

saturn8601 2y ago

This is anecdotal but in my experience the restrooms still suck and are poorly maintained (This was my experience in Hamburg and Amsterdam in 2023). What is even worse is that there seems to be a little recourse to correct it in the short term. There isn't a "Free market" of toilet companies because the same firm seems to capture all the toilets in a given area. So you have the worst of all worlds, you have to pay to use a poorly maintained restroom and there is little you can do about it...at least as a traveler not familiar with the local customs. Maybe locals can enact some improvement.

thwarted 2y ago
Tragedy of the Commons Ruins Everything Around Me. When it comes to restrooms, some people can not help not help themselves and leave it in a significantly worse state, or use it for other purposes (like drug use). Maintaining restrooms is, on average, thankless responsibility, even though people would be thankful to find one.
- saturn8601 2y ago
  Thats fine but if you are paying to have the restrooms maintained then the expectation should be different. Don't excuse a private company charging money to patrons and then providing poor service. If I want bad restrooms, I can have the government maintain it like in many places in the US.

chopin 2y ago

Germany has very high taxes and seems yet unable to maintain clean free restrooms. I can relate for countries with income taxes around 10%, but for taxes much higher than that free restrooms should be affordable. I currently visit Australia and it seems to be no problem here almost as good as Japan.