Simple question.
I haven’t seen pay toilets in a long time.
Are they still around?
If not, what caused their demise?
One factor was the gender inequality issue. IIRC, in “pay” bathrooms, the urinals were free. So, men had to pay only if they had to go #2, and women had to pay for everything.
Folks simply won’t pay for that shit.
but they do in big cities of europe. . . . (the tourists have to pay at least)
I seem to recall hearing that pay toilets were made illegal; I could have heard this in either Pennsylvania, Arizona, Virginia, or Florida, so it may have been a state law in one of those states.
Not only are pay toilets alive and well in much of Europe, in the Czech Republic they actually charge women more. I think the rationale is that women use more toilet paper.
I got off my ass <snicker> and googled this thing. Apparently Green Bean was correct.
We can thank March Fong (at least if you live on the left coast)
Pay toilets are alive and well in the city of San Francisco (also apparently in Palo Alto and San Jose). I have been known to use them myself in an emergency.
The toilets are produced and installed by J.C. Decaux, the same company that puts the pay toilets on Paris streets (I have also used one in Paris). Decaux installs pay toilets at no charge as long as the city allows them to install numerous giant advertising kiosks everywhere.
Since these toilets are completely self-contained, self-cleaning units, the issue of stalls vs. urinals does not arise. You have to pay to enter the bathroom at all.
Just for fun, here’s the map of the Decaux toilets in San Francisco
In Switzerland they have pay toilets and showers. In Zurich train station there is the free toilet, which is usually a bit nasty and dirty. Then there is the pay restroom. You pay a bit for the urinal, more for the sitdown toilet. Tthe shower with fresh towels is a separate facility, about 5-10 CHF, IIRC. One of the best values I have seen. They also have one in Geneva, not as big and not so permanent. I haven’t noticed this yet elsewhere.
London and Hamburg have them everywhere + the problem is they don’t change notes either and don’t open 24/7
they do have the super loos which are built in the middle of the street but i’ve never seen anybody go into one since its 8 times more expensive than a council toilet + in Manchester they stick super loos right near free public toilets too which is a dumb bussiness idea
NYC has put one in near 34th&6th (I’m not sure NYC is the owner - It might be a company put one in). Maybe if I had some serious business I might pay for a delux toilet.
There’s a musical on Broadway (or is it off Broadway?) called Urinetown. It’s about a small town’s citizens uprising against the newly-installed pay toilets.
thanks mobo85 I was wondering what urinetown was about. When I 1st heard it I thought the names couldn’t be urinetown - then figured it must be ‘you’re in town’ but I was wrong.
::sings::
Urine the money! Urine the money!
Thanks, Beagledave and March Fong Eu. If she does run again, I’ll vote for her.
SpoilerVirgin, did you say self cleaning? Can you explain? 
I don’t know if they’re illegal in Pennsylvania, but there is an funny pay toilet story. I heard this in my Administrative Law class many moons ago and I can’t give you a source, but here goes. . .
From 1940 until the 1970s or early 80s, the Howard Johnson’s chain held the franchise rights for travel plazas on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. On the Turnpike, the plazas are the only places with toilet facilities. They’re situated about every 40-50 miles between exits.
From the time the plazas opened, all the restrooms featured pay toilets. This changed in the mid-1970s when then-Governor Milton Shapp was traveling the Turnpike on the way somewhere and needed to stop and use the necessaries. The only problem was that no one in his entourage had a dime for the pay toilets and for some reason they couldn’t get change.
Legend has it that upon his return to Harrisburg, Governor Shapp strongly recommended (read: threatened the livelihood)to someone at the Turnpike Commission that the franchise agreements for HoJo’s be recast to prohibit pay toilets.
To this day, the restrooms on the Turnpike are free.
Zap!
Boston’s got some pay toilets now, too. Self cleaning, and everything!
Commercial toilets have been around for a long time, and there have always been very mixed feelings about them.
Supposedly emperor Vespasian introduced the first pay2pee toilets in the first century AD in Rome. When cornered on the subject (possibly by his son, sources disagree) he held up a coin under the nose and said that it was made from urine, yet “Pecunia non olet” (money doesn’t smell).
The toilets at Stockholm’s Central Station are self-cleaning. Basically after use the toilet senses that you have stood up and the seat rotates (stays parallel to the floor) so it passes through a cleaning thingie at the back.
Personally I don’t like them as the seats tent to be quite small and I’m a tall chap.
Green Bean wrote:
The version of the story I heard years ago was that it was made illegal because, it was argued, that men could and did find other places to take a leak, whereas women didn’t have this option, so there was a gender disparity in the use of the things. I was told this, mind you, in front of a working pay toilet. This was over fifteen years ago, mind you, around the Concordia campus, near Chicago.
beagledave wrote:
There’s apparently more to the story, since SpoilerVirgin says they’re still in use on the Barbary Coast. Maybe it’s a question for Cecil.