This would not be a problem if Europe had free toilets like the United States. I really don't understand why I should have to pay to pee.
For example this article talks about the situation in the New York. Where there are... 20 public toilets. And they're owned... by the French.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/nyregion/with-few-public-...
This article recommends people go begging to hotels because there are so few public toilets.
https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/best-public-res...
But I've never been asked to pay to use a bathroom in Europe.
Otherwise what's this discussion about? Do people think restaurants and shops in Europe don't have toilets as well?
At every Starbucks I've ever been to out here there's never been a question that you could just walk in and use the bathroom. Same with McDonalds. Frequently these places have a back door you can enter and the bathrooms are right there, and nobody even sees you go in.
That's not what the article says. It says nothing about the total number of public toilets except that it is small and locals have mapped them out.
The 20 is a specific batch of pay street toilets that were delivered and planned for installation, but only four of which were actually fully installed, one was pending hookups, and the other 15 are still in warehouse.
And they are apparently owned by the city (not the French) but operated by a French contractor.
More to the point, the article notes that New York is unusual in its lack of public toilets, not typical of the US.
"In the United States, pay toilets became much less common from the 1970s, when they came under attack from feminists as well as from the plumbing industry."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_toilet
Rest stops along freeways in the U.S. are almost always free. Gas stations and restaurants and convenience stores will sometimes have a sign that restrooms are "For customers only" but there is almost never a charge specifically to use the restroom. In Europe, driving through the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and France, almost all restrooms where you didn't pay to enter the area required a separate fee. I remember specifically being surprised at the fee required to enter the restroom at a McDonald's in Europe.
But apart from parks those are places that people have to go to because there aren't any public toilets!
We rest stops, public parks, and fast food in Europe as well. I thought the point of the conversation was about actual public bathrooms, not just private bathrooms people would let you use. Public parks are the only public ones you listed.
Seems like you have it backward. There aren't public toilets because people can go to SO many other places for a bathroom.
> public parks are the only public ones you listed.
I only listed 2. Public parks and rest stops. Rest stops are public.
I can go on if you'd like... government buildings, libraries, bus terminals, train terminals, beaches, malls, pretty much any business that lets the general public walk in its doors... hotels...
Last time I was in EU was 10 years ago but tried to use a toilet in a bar and got yelled at unless I bought something first.
Even in the US you cannot just walk into every bars and restaurants and use their toilets for free...
Take another extreme - allowing people in only if they will definitely buy something in the store. It reduces shoplifting and traffic that doesn't buy anything! Except that would drastically reduce sales from lack of people who haven't already decided in addition to being put off by it. The "buy something" policies strike me as similarly pennywise and pound foolish.
If you're in a place with tons of mentally disabled folk or other type of people that don't respect public areas, then it's going to cost you more than it helps you.
Also, it could be more headache than its worth if you're at a big tourist spot where the probability of someone buying something is not high enough compared to the enormous amount of people who will want to use a bathroom.
That said, by and large sny national chain will allow use of their facilities.
Gas stations are required by the state to have publicly accessible bathrooms (and have also long decided this is good business).
Pretty much any place with seating will have bathrooms. Of course many will try to restrict them to customers.
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0739.htm
But at least in Florida it seems they can be restricted to paying customers:
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/25446355/good-question-restaurant...
Now to your point: Almost all businesses in the US allow people to use the restroom without buying merchandise or food, unless marked specifically. The places that don't allow it are typically in high traffic tourist areas that already have public facilities, or otherwise have a homeless problem that has them needing to keep their facilities from being abused.
10 years ago on NYE at Times Square, people were literally dropping squat or pissing in bottles in the middle of a televised street for lack of anywhere else to do it. I've been desperate enough to have to to it myself.
Somewhere in the suburbs? Sure, just stop at a McDonald's, a public park, a mall, or any number of places with toilet access. But cities themselves largely lack them.
There were portapotties stationed up and down the strip...outside of the corrals. If you dared to use them, you were done for the night-- you couldn't get back into your pen unless you evaded the cops and hopped a fence.
Like you said, find a restaurant, or a Dunking Donuts and buy something...or just sneak in. Look at the menu up as you're thinking and then run to the bathroom. At the places I usually is it I don't feel guilty, if I ate there yesterday I paid for today's bathroom use :)
Public bathrooms are a lot of trouble with cleaning, crime etc and usually are closed at nighttime in parks too. Tech can mitigate some of those concerns but still...
What? McDonald's are pretty much everywhere in Oregon
Free app controlled urinals that play curated digital advertisements in front of you while you pee.
This seems to be more common in the public sector. It happens in the private sector but, in my experience, when it does it is with small mom and pop companies that are similarly incapable of seeing the big picture.
A timely piece from the BBC about the reduction in toilet provision in the UK over the last few years. The tldr is that public spending on toilets is discretionary and councils have cut spending there since it's an easy target when needing to cut their budgets.