A strategy on how to implement public toilets

Abstract

On average, each person visits the toilet 8 times a day. Each day, 15 minutes are spend on a toilet. Therefore no one can deny the important role of toilets. This project scrutinizes toilets in public spaces. The development of mass produced cheap material public toilets, placed at the wrong locations, has lead to many problems. Problems such as terrible hygienic conditions, vandalism, misuse and a bad image. Many toilets were in such a bad condition that they have been removed and not been replaced to save costs. This has lead to even more problems with public toilets these days: bad availability, bad accessibility and bad maintenance. Foreign sources report that over 40% of public toilets have been closed over the past ten years. In the Netherlands, there is currently no law that insists that city councils provide public toilets. This project uses two different approaches to make a good implementation of modern public toilets possible. The user is the centre of the design. One approach is the from a macro level down to a product level, the other one is from the user up to the product level. This approach has lead to an analysis of current regulations and cities within the Netherlands on one side and an overview of the user wishes, based on user analysis and research on the other side. Apparently, the amount of regulations for public toilets is very limited. Analogies have been found to figure out which factors play a role to determine an availability-formula. It appears that the need for public toilets is very high, especially for specific user groups. With the increasing percentage of elderly in the Netherlands, the need for public toilets will increase. Toilets are the most important building for disabled visitors to be able to get access to. The analysis has lead to a set of factors, that play an important role to calculate the availability of public toilets. These factors have been spoken through with experts in two brainstorm sessions. Also, the choices a stakeholder will have to make when deciding to fulfill the need for toilets have been discussed and explained in a set of guidelines. The end result is a publication with fill-in forms to make it easy for city councils and involved parties to determine a policy for public toilets. The publication contains 6-steps to analyze the current situation and tackle the important problems regarding availability, accessibility and maintenance. The availability is easy to determine using a formula involving the degree of urbanization, the hotspots and the type of users in a centre area. The accessibility is based on different choices that have to be made and tips and tricks to prevent vandalism and misuse and stimulate use. The maintenance explains multiple possibilities to boost the image of public toilets. Finally this project process report ends with suggestions for the recently set up Dutch Toilet Organisation on how to proceed. For users, DTO should aim on communication. For stakeholders, promotion and information are the most important to-do’s for the near future.