> 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.

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.

Wikipedia (and my personal experience) disagrees: "Pay toilets are especially common in Continental Europe."

"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.

Gas stations, fast food restaurants and large chain stores (Walmart, grocery stores, etc.) are all effectively free public toilets, at least in the regions where I've lived. I imagine they legally have the right to limit access to customers, but I can't remember ever seeing it done in practice.

I thought we were talking about public toilets, as in run by the city.

Otherwise what's this discussion about? Do people think restaurants and shops in Europe don't have toilets as well?

In San Diego at least public toilets get used by the homeless and drug users so voters asked for them to be removed. Then the homeless migrate to using fast food toilets, now they are getting keypads, keyed-locks, tokens, or worse having the code on the receipt so you have to buy something first even if you need to really use the restroom first. Frustrating since I am diabetic and use the restroom a lot.

Same here. It's interesting how that distinction is often non existent.

The article is talking about Paris, so you'd have to compare it to access to bathrooms in places like NYC or SF, where most businesses do restrict access to customers. I think Starbucks changed it recently so anyone can use their restroom, but that makes me not want to use their restrooms.

As a suburbanite I was confused by the Starbucks bathroom kerfuffle because I didn't know city locations had keypads/locks on their bathroom doors.

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.

Good point. I can't think of a situation where I've seen a public toilet that exists for it's own sake. But I can think of many situations where toilets are part of otherwise publicly owned facilities - like mass transit depots, visitor centers, highway rest stops, etc. So I guess the supply of public toilets becomes a function of the amount of general public facilities in the area. Which is to say that your experience will vary depending on your context - probably just rural vs. urban.

Free public toilets are everywhere! Rest stops on the interstate, public parks, even fast food places and stores will let you use the bathroom...

> Free public toilets are everywhere! Rest stops on the interstate, public parks, even fast food places and stores will let you use the bathroom...

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.

In the US our rest stops are usually public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest_area#United_States

> But apart from parks those are places that people have to go to because there aren't any public toilets!

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...