[tokyodude]

Funny but, at least in the USA, public toilets are a great example of the tragedy of the commons. They are almost universally destroyed. In malls and shopping centers, in fast food restaurants and cafes, in movie theaters.

I'm sure there are worse countries but I also know there are plenty of better countries. As an American it depresses me. My culture seems to be one of "it's a rite of passage to destroy the commons" that includes kicking in the doors to toilet stalls until they break. Peeing standing up in a toilet when their are perfectly good urinals. Putting entire roles of toilet paper in the toilet "just for fun". It's so common that AFAIK it's just assumed that's the way the world is. It's not. Plenty of other countries don't have that culture.

I've often wished someone one like The Lonely Island would find a comedy meme to make it embarrassing to be caught trashing/breaking/abusing public restrooms. Well I can dream that my culture would change.

[ndnxhs]

I have literally never seen a public toilet in this state in Australia. Is this common across all of the US? The public toilets here are at worst dirty because of a lack of cleaning but not a malicious effort to ruin them but often the public use but private owned toilets in shopping centres are next to perfect.

[throwaway9d0291]

Maybe you haven't seen them but they're definitely there. Have a look at https://toiletmap.gov.au/

In my experience they're generally much better maintained than US toilets.

And pervasiveness of toilets is a regional thing in the US. In the bay area though, they're extremely rare and universally destroyed.

[ndnxhs]

Oh by state I don't mean the country state but the condition they are in.

[mifreewil]

Interested to know how unique US is in this regard. If your name checks out, I assume Japan is one such country where things differ from your experience. I would guess that Japan is the exception though, not the rule.

[mcv]

Why do you assume the behaviour in the US would be the rule? I have on occasion come across toilets in a terrible state, but for the most part, toilets in Europe, paid or not, tend to be fairly decent. In need of cleaning, sure, but it's certainly not common for people to kick in the doors or anything like that.

Well, the office in which I'm currently working seems to have some people with a surprisingly poor aim, so there's that. But there's certainly no culture to intentionally destroy the place.

My experience is mostly western Europe.

[mifreewil]

I wouldn't say it's common for people to kick doors in either, I'm sure it happens though. More likely to happen at a place like a dive bar - that wouldn't surprise me, or some place where the bathroom appearance isn't seen as a high priority - like a gas station.

[tokyodude]

I haven't lived anywhere else only traveled so my experience elsewhere is only from a few days. Found toilets nicer than anything in Japan in Copenhagen, Stockholm, a few places in Germany. They usually had a fee of 10 to 50 cents and so stuck out in my memory but like I said, only there a few days each no idea what the norm is.

[mifreewil]

But if the clean toilets have controlled access that requires a fee for use then that mitigates tragedy of commons effect. Not aware of many places like that in the US.