Meet the Researcher Who Travels the World Studying Public Toilets
By: Gabriel Geiger
It took some time before Katherine Webber consciously realized she had been collecting toilet stories for years.
A colleague refusing to eat or drink to avoid the toilet at her workplace. An older relative never leaving the house for fear of not finding a restroom. A friend juggling breastfeeding and potty training in the bathroom stall of a shopping center.
As she collected more and more of these stories, Webber, an Australian social planning researcher, began to analyze the connections between them, igniting a newfound passion for public toilets and the ways in which these often stigmatized—yet undoubtedly essential—spaces could be made more inclusive and accessible.
"My professional role is getting people to participate in the community," she told Motherboard over Zoom. "I saw this disconnect: if people can't access the toilets, whether it be at work, school, or a public space, they aren't able to be actively engaged in that place. Then it dawned on me that of course if people can't confidently access a toilet, you aren't going to get full participation and you can't create a truly inclusive community."
Following a grant from the Churchill Fellowship, in 2018 the toilet expert travelled the globe, visiting everywhere from Germany, to the United States, to India, where she hopped in and out of some of the best—and worst—public restrooms the world has to offer.
In doing so, Webber joined the surprisingly active world of toilet enthusiasts. Websites like The Toilet Guru, for example, allow visitors to explore images of toilets in various countries, and YouTube channel Capturing Toilets showcases slow motion footage of flushing toilets with classical music playing in the background.
Yet, while YouTube channels like Capturing Toilets are more preoccupied with "capturing the beautiful nature of the flush," advocates like Webber are fighting to make public restrooms more equitable.
The stakes are high. The design of many public restrooms make them unusable for people with certain disabilities, for example. Meanwhile, a lack of public restrooms means that many find themselves at the whim of private businesses, a problem for the unhoused but also gig and delivery workers, who often find themselves shut out of restaurant bathrooms. For Amazon's delivery drivers, the combination of this and an already grueling schedule means that it's common to resort to peeing in bottles.
Public restrooms have also been a highly-publicized battleground in the recognition of trans and gender diverse people's rights—and spaces where many of those same people suffer harassment and violence. In 2016, it was reported that nearly 60 percent of transgender Americans have avoided public restrooms out of fear of confrontation.
"I've heard many stories from people who are transgender or gender diverse about the fear they experience when they have to choose which toilet to go into," Webber said. "One quote that always stuck with me is someone who told me: 'I have to choose between getting verbally abused or physically assaulted.' That was the choice they had to make every time they used a gendered public toilet."
That's exactly why Webber travelled to Portland, Oregon to study the city's attempts to create more equitable toilets. She pointed to initiatives like the city-sponsored All-User Restroom Challenge and the Portland Courthouse as examples where previously gendered restrooms were converted into open, non-exclusive spaces. And, portable restrooms like The Portland Loo are large enough to fit wheelchairs, baby carriages, and even a shopping cart, making them ideal for wheelchair users.
When it came to public toilet infrastructure, Webber was particularly impressed with the German capital Berlin, which recently conducted a large-scale mapping of public toilets and, in consultation with a number of citizen groups, designed a new 'Berliner toilet'. It's also in the process of dramatically increasing the number of toilets throughout the city.
Meanwhile, in Amsterdam a number of hemp-filled urinals scattered around the city have attempted to provide a sustainable solution to the "wild peeing" problem, although there too many have pointed to the lack of female-friendly public toilets. In 2017, for example, many were outraged after a Dutch woman was fined for publicly urinating, with a judge reportedly telling her that she should've used a urinal instead.
Of course part of the learning process was seeing what not to do as well. While Webber encountered plenty of foul public restrooms, one that she particularly remembers was in New York City.
"One of the worst public toilets I went to was in New York," Webber said, laughing. "It was in a park (I can't remember which one) and they had literally cut the doors off—I assume because people were having sex in them or something. So, if you sat down, the door was literally at your chest height, meaning that it covered your head, but not your body."
"There was no toilet paper and smelled absolutely horrible," she added. "Yeah, that one really stood out."
Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and global travel at a standstill, Webber is sharing her expertise in Australia in the hopes of raising awareness and persuading public officials to take action and improve the country's public toilet infrastructure. Among the things she is advocating for is a requirement for public restrooms in federally-funded infrastructure projects, and more funding for Changing Places toilets, which are specifically designed for people with disabilities.
At times it can be an uphill battle. Proper maintenance of public restrooms requires consistent attention, upkeep and funding. Sometimes that cost is offset to loo-users. In the German Autobahn, for example, rest stops have paid toilets, and while they are certainly far far cleaner than most of their American cousins along highways in the United States, you are still paying to fulfill an essential bodily function.
In any case, more often than not restrooms are treated as an afterthought, or forgotten entirely in construction and infrastructure projects.
But it's exactly that paradigm that needs to shift, Webber said, and we need to think big about how we turn public restrooms into places that facilitate community, not hinder it.
"I think there's a real opportunity for us to redesign our public spaces to include toilets in order to include people. And, I think if we would look more at who is excluded from our spaces, we would look at our spaces quite differently."
Toilet soliloquies...
Hemp filled urinals?
that's almost sacrilege.
Don't pee on my pot...
Now I am thinking about Cheech and Chong following the dog around after it ate their stash.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go to those lengths to get my pot back
Talk about tasting like shit.
Is that where the term "skunk weed" came from?
I wonder how he reacts when people tell him he's full of it.
I noticed she never mentioned the squat holes.
OOOOOO nice ass.
Yeah it is. However, I didn't realize that there were grown men that drop trough completely when urinating. I always thought that it was a kid thing to do.
I don't get it either, but the view was nice (hopefully he is over 18)....
Maybe it's to give the boys a chance to breathe
I remember one time when my Nephew was a kid. I took him into a restroom and he refused to go into a stall and go. He saw all the men standing at the urinal and decided that is what he had to do. Even though he was too small.
I ended up having to have him drop trou and hold him up so he could pee in the trough like all the other guys.
Reminds me how upset my son got when we were shopping and he didn't want to go into the women's restroom because he was a boy. I couldn't take him into the men's room & he was only 4 so I didn't let him go in alone. I dragged him in & shoved him in a stall - he urinated & came out untraumatized (and no one checked to see if he had the proper genitals to being in the women's room).
Most places have urinals closer to the ground now... I don't know if that's necessarily everywhere, but I know that the rest areas here in MI have those and I suppose that the ones closer to the ground would help "little people" too. Until watching the comedian Brad Williams... that's a big duh moment on my part... I'm not much taller, I hadn't thought about little people [men] and urinals. Can I just say that "chair height" or "comfort height" toilets aren't very comfortable for us shorties?
If I saw a guy do that I'd assume he was an Exhibitionist, it's not normal in regular bathrooms or at urinals and certainly at a urinal like the one pictured right out in public it is highly suspect. I used to go to lots of Keg Parties on farms or at deer camps and guys piss anywhere. I'd be talking with a group of guys and girls and I'd say I've got to piss and walk ten feet away and piss on a bush with my back to everyone but we kept our pants up so there was nothing to see. It's times like that that it's great to be male because the girls would have to go off into the woods and find a tree to lean against and a friend to stand guard not to mention the whole toilet paper issue.
Haha. Another outing with the kids and my Niece refused to go into the men's. Luckily a nice woman was just coming out and she said to not worry. She let me stand in the doorway and went back in to make sure she would be alright.
My hubby did that with my daughter when she was young & he was out with her alone (they liked to go to Monster Truck Rallies - not my thing).
Yeah, as a kid, I would get angry because I couldn't pee like a boy. I always keep lots of napkins and Kleenex in my car at all times. No poison oak or ivy on my ass!!!
You betcha.... I taught my daughter that too. Always be prepared.
You're a good uncle.
I took the kids back to PA to see their grandparents and we went by ourselves because Mr G couldn't get the time off. So we stopped at a rest stop and I was a little hesitant about letting T go off to the men's by himself because he was only 8...9? Anyway, he went off by himself and he was taking forever. I asked a man coming out if he would go in and yell for T and tell him Mom is waiting on him. The man did just that and he came out and told me the lil feller is ok but I don;t think he's very happy with you.
So the boy comes out and I asked him what took him so long. And he snaps at me "I hadda poop! Geez, Mom!"
Hahaha. Nothing like embarrassing the younguns.
Another one I just remembered. When my Nephew was in high school one day I had to go pick him up so he could come home and take a dump, then took him back. He refused to go number two at school.
According to him, if someone did they would be harassed. Other kids banging on the door, peeking over the top, sliding phones underneath...
About 20 years ago my mother was secretary at my old school where I went 1st through 4th and I visited her and used the boys room and the lip of lowest urinal was like a foot off the ground. It was weird being in that bathroom that I used so many times but hadn't been in since I was tiny everything was so much smaller than I remembered. My junior high had the kind built into the floor and four feet high so anyone could use them.
I've had to ask employees to check on my son several times. I swear, if we were running errands, that kid had it as a goal to pay a long visit to the restroom of every. single. store we were in. Same if we ate out. A trip to shop for school clothes was an all-day affair.
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!snortchokeburstofbacktobackmultiplepigsnortaHahahahahahahahahhacatchbreathbutnotreallyHahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!coughsnortHahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm all for pay toilets if it it results in restrooms that are well maintained and clean. Almost everyone carries a debit/credit card with them. If they charge a dollar to pee, I'll pay it.
Now I have to get back to that woman who was fined for peeing in public in Amsterdam. That judge is a fucking moron. How was she supposed to use that urinal (I assume it's the urinals in the photo?)
Look at the way it's designed. There is no possible way for her to squat while facing inwards. If she faces outward everyone is going to see the undercarriage. I don't know about you all but I'm kinda shy when I have to go.
And what is with that dude peeing with his pants down around his ankles?
Yeah, that was just stupidity on the judge's part.
Most of the state run ones I have been to, the welcome centers on interstates are not that bad. We usually wait for them, if possible.
That is usually what we do when traveling. So far we have lucked out.
So do we. When I traveled a lot for work, the rest stops were where I preferred.
Other than that, if we can't wait long enough, we look for a nice clean looking truck stop.
Yes, those are always trustworthy. I like Love's truck stops and Big Red also
Truck stops are usually good.
I'm all for pay toilets if it it results in restrooms that are well maintained and clean. Almost everyone carries a debit/credit card with them.
No thanks. Have you not ever been poor? We don’t need a world of toll everything. Besides, they would start out as clean facilities to ease the masses into the idea of clean pay for pee, then eventually be no different than today’s public toilets. In the end you’re right back where you started except with one more motherfucker getting rich by gaining access to your wallet. Ever been to Puerto Rico? You have to pay an attendant to use their public toilets and they smell worse than the worst public toilets here. I can’t imagine how those attendants don’t just keel over and die.
In Mexico a lot were pay. They even made you buy some TP from them before you go in.
I didn't consider that. Thank you for opening my eyes and giving me a new perspective
And yes I have been so poor to the point where I didn't even have a dollar to buy fries at McD's
That’s just a realization that came to me as a civil engineer. Now days the answer to how to build infrastructure devolves to something called a P3 - otherwise know as Public Private Partnerships. When our bloated govt doesn’t have the money to pay to widen a highway, investors in some random country offer to build it as a toll road. Now the road you used to use for free costs you money as some Australian jerkoff gets rich, meanwhile your taxes that were supposed to pay for infrastructure go to pay salaries of insane environmental regulatory commissions that grind everything to a halt, and continue to increase.
I’m working on a new high school right now, and a quarter of the property is being used to “treat” stormwater. Get this - water droplets form from scratch high in the atmosphere and fall to the earth and land on the roof. We have collect that rain and shuttle it straight to a “treatment” facility to make it “clean”. What’s in the facility? It’s a small pond with four feet of special material that the virgin rain passes through, more commonly known as “dirt”. How’s that for progress and efficient use of resources? Here’s the best part - the property next door is an old middle school. The county couldn’t afford to replace it, so now a new one is being built by P3. I was like, wait a second - it’s a public school, there’s no tuition so how does an investor profit from this venture? The answer ... through the state’s gambling addiction. Yes, those who gamble away their own kids’ college funds are paying for some other kids’ new middle school.
Anymore I am just embarrassed to be a civil engineer.
Ahhhh - what a sweet job - globe trotting to seek out the wastelands....
The one in NY got me. The doors cut from the waist down...
I don't know why they are so worried about it when one can already see a public masturbator on the subway.
I do not get that at all. I wish she remembered which park, my daughter and I are planning a trip to NYC and I think I would like to avoid that one like the plague (pandemic???? - too soon????)
Just don't avoid Central Park.
That is one on my bucket list. It will be my first time in NYC. My daughter has been numerous times. HOPEFULLY, we are going to see the Rockettes and some shopping at the REAL Macy's. I booked a nice hotel on Times Square. Should be awesome.
I saw the Rockettes featuring Ginger Rogers in May 1980. It was super cool
Oh wow - that must have been a fantastic show.
My daughter wanted to be a Rockette when she was 4. She took dance classes for almost 15 years. It has always been a dream of mine to take her to see them.
I've been to Amsterdam; there aren't very many public toilets for women. Trust me... I REALLY had to pee while walking about; we ended up going into a McDonald's to use their toilet, but we had to buy something while there, so I got some fries.
Yeah, it seems they tried to tackle the problem with men yet didn't think about women.
You're in the Army now.
As Meatball would say.
That's a hella shitter ya built there Sarge
Awww....I just wanna tickle his ears and kiss his nose
Just dig a hole...
Haaa, the infamous ''slit trench'' or the more modern version the ''Piss Pipes and Cat Holes''...
Leave it to the Army
In days of old when knights were bold and toilets werent invented , every one just dropped their load on the side of the road and walked away contented .....
que the shithouse poets.
It was the horse, I swear...
using that little ditty , you know how you can tell if your in a civilized area or not ?
is the load on the road or off to the side, no civilized person wants to track shit all over.
I've seen that before...in an Army field manual. The Air Force just gave us the Army ones because why do it all over?
Work smarter, not harder, right?
That's why they gave the Air Force the big planes.
Do I see 4 seats? That's 4 seats...meaning 4 people can...go...at the same time? I get stage fright when I know someone is using the stall next to mine.
Looky...no dividers. Talk about performance anxiety
If your in the Army you better get over your stage fright or you'd never pee or poop.
I can just imagine the person next to you wanting to carry on a conversation.
Or someone waiting for the right time to start singing to disguise the plop.
Or do anything else for that matter.
20, 30 or more guys in showers with about as much privacy as a stripper would have at Times Square in NY on New Years Eve is about the functional equivalent.
Oh hell to the no!!!!!!!!!! I don't even talk to myself until it's mission complete.
LMAO!!!!!
" That old black magic has me in its spelll...."
beula from porkys
One new gadget I have been seeing for sale. A contraption that you hook up to your existing toilet and it is a homemade bidet.
Not so sure about that.
Ive seen those , just want to make sure it has a water pressure adjustment knob .
i remember my grandma one time talking to grandpa saying she wanted a bidet attatchment , they argued back and forth, it ended up with him doing as she wanted eventually , but i will never forget him walking away muttering something about "who would intentionally and purposely want to endure a "Neptunes kiss with freezing water?"
If what you're talking about is a hand sprayer, similar to the ones they have on sinks to rinse dishes, they've been using those in the Middle East for ages. Hell, there's still a lot pf places there that don't have toilet, just holes in the floor with ceramic foot markers and those sprayers to wash your ass. They're even on toilets for those that don't know or like toilet paper. They do have one added benefit on a toilet. They're a great help at washing away skid marks!
I know what you are talking about. They do have these new fangled things to add to existing toilets.
As far as the squat thing, I wonder if one has to learn aim. Haha. Don't think I would be very good at it.
Naw..... just position the ass over the hole and bombs away. Just hope you don't have a super dump or squirts.
PS: don't forget to wash the feet, ankles and sandals.