While writing my article on 7 interesting facts about England, one of the things that surprised me about London was the abundance of pay toilets in England and the rest of Europe.
Pay Toilet in Berlin – from Wikimedia Commons
This is probably obvious to people who have spent more time in Europe, but I had not even heard of this as something that still existed. So I was surprised to learn that it was not that long ago that pay toilets were prevalent in the US as well. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 1974, there were over 50,000 pay toilets in the USA
The end of pay toilets in America
In 1970, the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America (CEPTIA) was founded by 19 year old Ira Gessler and his brother Frank in Dayton, Ohio. Over the course of the next several years, CEPTIA engaged in a grassroots crusade to end pay toilets in America and fulfill their group’s mission statement to
“Pay toilets are an unethical infringement on basic human rights.”
Originally laws to declare pay toilets illegal could not get enough votes to pass. A bill introduced by a California Assemblywoman “went down the drain in defeat” according to the Associate Press. Undoubtedly, the companies that manufactured pay toilets and the locks that go on them were against such bills. The largest such company was (and is) called Nik-o-Lok (it’s still in business today). Estimates put the revenue from pay toilets at somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million each year ($161 million in 2014 dollars).
But CEPTIA was undeterred and eventually successful. In 1973, Chicago became the first major municipality to ban pay toilets. After a court challenge that upheld the law, many other cities and states followed suit. By 1980, pay toilets in the US were all but extinct.
An interesting read on the subject is over at Pacific Standard
Had you ever used a pay toilet in the US?
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Interesting! Never knew we had pay toilets in the US. I was born in 1974 so I supposed I would’ve been too young to remember if my family ever did encounter a pay toilet here in the US.
Right – I’m similar in age so I had never heard of pay toilets in America either!
Excuse me, as a European, what do you do in an American city if you need the toilet? Surely not having a facility is an unethical infringement on basic human rights, not the other way round.
Typically in the US, just about every public establishment will have a restroom that is available to the public. Certainly any restaurant or other place that serves food, but even office buildings will typically have restrooms available off the lobby. It’s somewhat different / more restricted in urban areas but generally that is the practice
Just use any toilet you want lol Seinfeld had an episode about this where George has a listing of all the good toilets in the city
Heh – I remember that episode – that was a good one
There’s an app for that…Charmin’s Sit or Squat allows users to rate cleanliness of public toilets.
That is a good read. I didnt know the US had paid toilet. I thought that is a China thing.
As a child, I remember putting a dime and turning the knob at a pay toilet in San Francisco at a parking garage. The door did not open. Another person came in and got the knob to turn. I did not get to use the toilet at all (person coming out did not hold door open?) Back in the Seventies, a ten cents was a lot for me. It’s a horrible memory. I would not have asked my parents for the money unless I really had to go.
I remember paid toilets in the MSP airport circa 1957. Yeah I’m old…..but I was a kid then and after putting my coin in the slot to enter, the stall door self-locked. Couldn’t figure out how to open it—had to crawl under to get out.
A flight attendant (aka stewardess back then) was with me–no extra charge– since I was what’s now known as an “unaccompanied minor” awaiting a connecting flight. Glad we made the plane!
I remember when I was a kid me and my sister found a pay toilet in a department store and we both just crawled under to use it.
Mannix used to be one of the most popular shows on TV in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Mannix was a private detective. In one episode, Mannix was kidnapped but he escaped and wanted to use a pay phone. He did not have any money so he broke into a pay toilet and took the nickels to use for the telephone.
San Francisco has some public toilets on sidewalks, originally pay, now free and attended. Same type you find in Paris, same company.
I can’t remember where it was, but in the US I remember as a child I saw a pay toilet where the coin acceptor was broken.. so they had a guy standing by the door taking payment and manually unlocked the door so you could go in.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pay toilet in Japan though. Most public parks or areas had free toilets, although cleanliness and the availability of western vs squat toilets were hit and miss. In a pinch you could always run into a local convenience store or office/hotel and they would usually let you use the facilities in the lobby.