Restroom Archive
restroomarchive.com
restroomarchive.com
> has a countdown timer above warning visitors that the door will auto-open in x amount of time.
A toilet that has a door with a countdown seems like the most stress-inducing thing ever.
Junkies' heroin-induced stupor.
I haven’t seen an actual countdown timer, but many of the public toilets in Poland have time limits that are displayed on a sign, and announced by the computer voice loudspeaker. Usually it’s 30 minutes though IIRC.
I assume one would wash their hands after reading.
It would be more stressful to the people who are standing there watching me finish my shit than it would be to me, I guarantee.
incredible work. I can only imagine what it was like standing here getting the images, the smell of the must wafting from the corners that haven't been cleaned in a decade, the microbial colonies thriving off pipe condensation above with entire universes of births and deaths and rebirths
1000/10, every bathroom is an entire story
So from a fellow public bathroom enthusiast, I wholeheartedly thank you for this project. I travel much less these days, but if I'm ever in a nice bathroom I'll see if I can get a scan to work and upload it!
What was your original goal(s) for the effort?
Did you click on the map view to see the route he is driving?
Years ago when I was in New York often, I had the idea to make a paid bathroom app, with a bit of a luxury twist. You’d pay $30 or whatever a month to have access to 40+ well-designed bathrooms across the city. The idea was that we’d own and operate these, and they’d be extremely well-designed, have beautiful tile interiors, come with a variety of hygiene products, water bottles, and so on.
I still think it could work, but over time I began to dislike the idea, as it would have been yet another example of the public commons essentially being eroded and replaced with a privatized paid system. Not that NYC public bathrooms are even remotely nice to begin with… but I think a better solution would be less deliberately exclusionary. Then again, what could be more NYC than the idea of paying money to get better things?
Also, what is the public commons that's being eroded in this scenario? Public toilets are few and far between but also kind of don't seem like a commons. I'd imagine a commons is something like a fishery or something. Pretty easy to control access to toilets. They have doors and as most European countries have proven, you can charge for the access to those doors.
And I think public access to toilets, at least in NYC, should probably be something more like the subway system than a service just for those that can pay a lot. Even then, the subway isn’t really a life need in the way a toilet is. (Yes I’m aware that it costs money to ride the subway, but it’s not very expensive.) I can imagine the service I described being branded by the press/public as bathrooms only for the rich.
As I said, norms around this aren’t the same around the world. It’s normal to pay for a toilet in Europe but many Americans have a negative reaction to the idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...
That may have been the only place I ever saw the real pay-toilet coin boxes. Anywhere else was simply gatekept by being a patron of the restaurant or store. Of course, in 1980s San Diego, there were zero public toilets of any kind, anywhere in town. All of the toilets were inside businesses, maintained by those businesses, and 100% closed to non-customers.
There was a huge discussion here last week ICYMI
One of my personal favorites is Pavement Paradise [2] documenting American parking spaces.
I'll also shamelessly plug some pictures of gas stations I took last summer :) [3].
[1] https://clui.org/photo-archive
It'd almost be like an episode of the Littlest Hobo. Each week I'd roll into town, bent on performing my job and documenting restrooms.
But in the end I'd save some woman, or orphan, or somebody that's having a horrible problem in their lives, and then I'd roll on to the next town.
Except... in my series, I'd always get a piece of homemade pie as thanks, before I left.
Which sort of brings us full circle:
Now I’m wishing more public spaces inside and out were archived forever like this - imagine we had this 1000/2000/3000 years ago and seeing how it was like back then!
Splashback on my ballsack from a public toilet has got to be my least favorite thing ever.
Also obligatory fluffy and sticky floor mat is missing.
Gemini: You've spotted a real historical and geographical divide. Door knobs are predominantly an Anglo-American standard, while lever handles dominate continental Europe, Scandinavia, and much of the rest of the world.
Jag vill ha runda "Door Knobs" till mina innerdörrar! Finns det att hitta i Sverige och fungerar det till våra kantiga dörrpryttlar (ja, du vet de där som ser till att dörren hålles stängd. Vad sjutton heter det??)?
The closest I've ever seen is train and airplane bathrooms where the knob is required - but it is also close enough to the sink that you just use your towel and throw that.
There are knobs on the stalls, but you wash your hands after exiting the stalls so I don't think you are counting that.
https://forward.com/culture/467735/george-costanza-lost-it-a...
- would be nice if there was a flag hasBidet = true or false for each of them
On the dirty hand, I used to see (evidence that) someone clog(ged) a one of the toilets in an office building that I shared with lawyers, once a month or so. I developed a head canon that this person acted out their dissatisfaction with the lawyer or counterparty on the rest of the building.