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this ever happened to you you're making
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your way downtown walking fast faces
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past and uh Nature Calls
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so now you're walking really fast
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because you really really need to find a
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bathroom and the problem well if you're
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anywhere in North America that is a very
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difficult task
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[Music]
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[Music]
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thank you
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so to be clear the public bathroom that
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I'm talking about is one that is
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accessible to anyone for free not if you
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buy a coffee or a donut not if you ask
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really really nicely free and cities
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across North America really struggle to
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provide them they're annoyingly missing
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in places you'd expect them public
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spaces busy streets and Transit stations
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the few that are free to use almost
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always close in the evening and aren't
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easy to find unless you know exactly
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where to go case in point in my hometown
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of Vancouver there is just one bathroom
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across the entire transit system just
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one located here at Waterfront Station
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and you think it'd be somewhere
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convenient like oh I don't know the
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lobby but no to get to this one bathroom
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you have to go through the fair Gates
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across the pedestrian bridge down a set
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of escalators through a tunnel past
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another set of gates and if you haven't
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peed yourself already you'll find it in
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the back corner yeah it's a real pain in
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the butt I'm sorry about that uh but I
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imagine you can relate this is a problem
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pretty much anywhere you go across North
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America if you're looking for a bathroom
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you're better off going into a cafe a
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fast food restaurant or a bush
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but this isn't the case everywhere
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in Paris the city of love and lavatories
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there are over 400 freestanding public
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bathrooms across the city in London
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almost half the tube stations have a
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public bathroom which adds a whole new
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meaning to the term Tube Station and in
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Tokyo public bathrooms are not only
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plentiful they are often beautiful works
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of art winning prizes and international
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recognition the world over like wow oh
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wow
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so what's the deal what's stopping us
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from providing more public bathrooms
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well to some extent the answer is pretty
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simple
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it's money
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public bathrooms are surprisingly
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expensive not just to buy but to install
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each one needs connections to
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electricity running water sewage pipes
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and the durability to withstand Canadian
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Winters this easily adds up to hundreds
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of thousands of dollars in Vancouver the
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park board recently made headlines for
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budgeting 645 thousand dollars for a
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single toilet which might sound insane
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but that's just how much they cost
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Montreal spent over half a million
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dollars on one of these bad boys well
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Toronto got theirs for 450 000 a
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relative bargain I guess
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but building a bathroom is also just a
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fraction of the total cost once you've
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opened the public bathroom
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congratulations now you get to maintain
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and clean it indefinitely it's a cost
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that typically amounts to tens of
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thousands of dollars per toilet every
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year
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and it makes sense if you think your
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three roommates can't keep a toilet
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clean try uh hundreds to thousands of
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different people every day
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money isn't the whole story after all we
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justify high costs for plenty of other
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things many of them arguably less useful
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than a bathroom
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there's another issue here
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the truth of the matter is that public
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bathrooms can be more than just places
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to use the toilets according to a
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research paper from the University of
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Toronto vandalism drug use and sexual
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activity are named as leading reasons
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for the closure of existing public
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toilets and the reluctance to provide
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additional ones I don't think that
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should surprise too many people public
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bathrooms can be kind of gritty and
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sometimes they are the scene of serious
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incidents in 2018 there were 23 overdose
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deaths recorded in public bathrooms
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across British Columbia
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those are genuine concerns many people
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have about public bathrooms and in some
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cities that has led to an interesting
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solution allow me to introduce you to
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the APT the automated public toilet it's
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a sensor-filled button activated robot
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toilet from the future this toilet
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cleans itself after each use while the
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structure enforces a time limit for how
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long it can stay inside it you know on
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top of that many of these toilets are
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built by private corporations who pay
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for these toilets by selling advertising
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on them that's right your flesh is now
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brought to you by neoliberalism
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so with apts corporations take care of
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the cost while technology makes sure
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these bathrooms are used as intended
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problem solved right
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well perhaps in theory but in practice
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these apts have been anything but
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perfect it turns out the automatic
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cleaning system is still no match for a
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human being that's determined to make a
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mess and relying on corporations to
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provide them often means they get the
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bare minimum amount of Maintenance what
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you often end up with instead is a very
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expensive toilet with all the same
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issues of a traditional one case in
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point Seattle after spending over 5
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million dollars on five apts the city
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eventually shut them all down because
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they were filthy and not being used as
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intended the bathrooms themselves ended
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up being sold on eBay
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so at this point I would understand if
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you thought it was basically impossible
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to provide a usable public bathroom but
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hear me out I don't think that's
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actually the issue here there's
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something I began to notice while
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putting this video together public
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bathrooms are gritty because they are
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rarely well maintained I looked into
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this a typical public bathroom gets
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cleaned once to twice a day meanwhile a
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bathroom in a restaurant which limits
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its use to its patrons gets cleaned up
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to 10 times a day and is constantly
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supervised the results really speak for
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themselves
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so at the end of the day it really does
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come down to money high quality public
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bathrooms are absolutely possible
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through frequent maintenance and
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cleaning but cities just don't seem to
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prioritize this and why is that well I
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think that's where we get to the very
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root of this issue
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in most cities there are laws that
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require certain businesses to provide
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bathrooms for customers typically those
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businesses are restaurants cafes and gas
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stations that has created a de facto
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network of bathrooms and businesses
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across the city that can be accessed by
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the public and because of that cities
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have been able to offload much of the
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responsibility of taking care of our
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private business to the private sector
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that is an inconvenient system sure but
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for most of us it's ultimately one that
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we can tolerate we have bathrooms in our
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homes in our workplaces and in a pinch
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inside a business public bathrooms are
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nice to have but not a necessity
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this is ultimately why public bathrooms
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suck in North America cities here
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developed with the understanding that
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toilets are a private responsibility and
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that has allowed governments to put in
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the bare minimum amount of effort into
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providing the public ones
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but this creates a disturbing dynamic
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because most of us have access to clean
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private bathrooms while our public
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bathrooms tend to be disgusting that has
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led many to stigmatized public bathrooms
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and those who use them which makes the
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problem much worse
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it turns out one of the biggest barriers
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to building a public bathroom is
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actually because neighboring businesses
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and residents actively resist them being
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built nearby it's not that they don't
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want public bathrooms they don't want
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the people associated with them the
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truth is we have a pretty long history
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of finding ways to exclude
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underprivileged groups of people from
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certain public areas like these benches
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that keep you from lying down on them or
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these heat vents with spikes our lack of
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public bathrooms is sadly a part of this
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tradition Urban theorist Mike Davis
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argues that public toilets are the real
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front line of the city's war on the
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homeless
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but I can't stress this enough that
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approach has widespread consequences
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children pregnant people senior citizens
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and those with certain medical
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conditions need to use bathrooms
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frequently for them a lack of public
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bathrooms can be a huge barrier to
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leaving their home professions like taxi
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drivers food delivery workers and local
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urban planning videographers suffer from
00:08:32
a lack of public toilets too the average
00:08:35
person pees six to eight times a day so
00:08:37
it's really not practical for workers in
00:08:39
these industries to pay for a coffee or
00:08:42
a donut every time they have to relieve
00:08:44
themselves many taxi on Uber drivers
00:08:46
report peeing in bottles instead to get
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through the day but perhaps the most
00:08:50
seriously affected are the homeless for
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them a public bathroom is really the
00:08:54
only reliable option they have to
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relieve themselves and practice basic
00:08:58
hygiene when there are none available
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they often have no other choice but to
00:09:02
relieve themselves on the street and
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that can have widespread implications in
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San Diego an outbreak of hepatitis A
00:09:09
that killed 25 people was linked back to
00:09:12
fecal matter in public places a grand
00:09:15
jury report investigating the outbreak
00:09:17
found that the primary problem was that
00:09:19
the homeless did not have access to
00:09:21
public toilets
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for me this highlights a huge flaw with
00:09:25
our current system by relying on
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businesses to provide bathrooms for the
00:09:29
public we have created serious gaps for
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those who need public bathrooms the most
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all while creating a public health risk
00:09:35
for everyone
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and it's not that businesses don't have
00:09:39
a role to play in providing bathrooms
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like yeah if you have a space that
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convenes lots of people together you
00:09:45
probably should have a bathroom
00:09:46
available but if that logic applies to a
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restaurant or a gas station why
00:09:51
shouldn't it apply to a transit station
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or a public space it doesn't matter
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where you are when you have to go you
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have to go in those moments you realize
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that bathrooms are a necessity
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so maybe it's about time we started
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treating them that way
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[Music]
