Comment by abbadadda | Hacker News Reader

Comment by abbadadda | Hacker News Reader

Surely this is an erosion in public trust, but if you’ve ever been in a busy public toilet that smells horrendous, you know from experience that maintaining these public toilets is no easy feat. At the same time, I agree with the thrust of the article that they are a civic good & necessity.

I live in the UK. I use the “Radar Key Scheme” for both my son and myself. The Radar Key opens handicapped toilets around the country that are otherwise locked. I asked my GP about a referral for this and they knew nothing about it. In the end I just bought one online. Bizarre. I have a disability that’s not visible, I’m otherwise healthy and relatively privileged, but being unable to find a toilet to use when my bladder feels like it is going to explode makes me feel like a wild animal - unable to fulfill the most base need in a culturally acceptable way - terrible feeling.

> The Radar Key opens handicapped toilets around the country that are otherwise locked.

I’ve never heard of this type of thing in the USA. Handicap stalls, if available, are just next to the rest of the stalls in any given location. They’re usually a bit bigger to accommodate a wheel chair, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a special entry mechanism.

Is the UK version a physical key or some RF tag?

It's just a physical key. Like the keys for operating train equipment or fire safety they're not intended to prevent malicious access, they're a social signal - this is for people who need it. You're not clever for figuring out how to abuse it, you're just a bad person.

The bad person is the one who decided to lock and downsize public toilets. All the arguments about taxes are about money for public good that market can't solve, well where is it?

It's a physical lock-and-key key: https://shop.disabilityrightsuk.org/products/radar-key.

Living in a country where it's the norm, the concept of (any) locked bathrooms is wild. When travelling I always always find restricted access (either by key, or payment) public facilities extremely jarring.

A lot of newer toilets in the USA are single occupancy rooms for families and disabled. Of course, this also makes them easier to use for drugs and camping, so locking them down in urban areas is pretty important.

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