Saturday 11 October 2014

Updates on Swiss public toilets

Since I emailed Swiss city governments about their public toilet provision in August, I've had phone and email replies from most of them, so here's an update on what they told me. I'll be adding this to the main post about Swiss public toilets, too.

Geneva

The very nice lady in charge of Geneva's public toilets informed me of something I hadn't noticed: that if you click on the icons on their map, you can see a photo and more information about each toilet. I went through all of them and made a list of the ones that were gender-neutral:
  • Avenue du Mail
  • Chemin de l'Impératrice
  • Jardin Anglais - Monument National
  • Longemalle
  • Parc BERTRAND
  • Parc de Bourgogne
  • Parc des Acacias
  • Parc GOURGAS
  • Promenade des Bastions - Saint-Léger
  • Quai Gustave-ADOR - Police du Lac
  • Sentier du Promeneur Solitaire
Unfortunately, all the information on Geneva's city website is under copyright, so I can't simply post all the details of these toilets here. The next step is to write back and ask whether they've considered opening up their toilet data.

Basel

Basel do have information on which public toilets are gender-neutral, but not in a form that they could send out to me. Their map does at least show the locations of wheelchair-accessible public toilets, which are generally gender-neutral. The man who phoned me up suggested I visit each toilet and check, which would be hard, with over 80 of them!

Lausanne

The people in Lausanne (map) kindly sent me a list of all their public toilets, of which the following are gender-neutral.

  • Sous le pont Bessières, Rue St.-Martin, Lausanne 1005
  • Rue de la Borde 12, Lausanne 1018 (also wheelchair-accessible)
  • Place de l'Europe, Lausanne 1003
  • Parc Mon-Repos 3, Lausanne 1005 (also wheelchair-accessible and with a changing table)
  • Place de la Navigation, Lausanne 1006 (also with a changing table)
  • Port de Vidy, Allée du Bornan, Lausanne 1007
  • Saint-Etienne Place de la Cathédrale N° 4, Lausanne 1005

Bern

In Bern (map) there are 20 public WC facilities, 8 urinals, two staffed facilities (at Metro Parking and Parking Casino) and 6 playground WCs, which are shut in winter. Most (but not all) of the WC facilities are gender-neutral and have a wheelchair-accessible toilet. In the playground toilets and the staffed facilities, there are changing tables.

Lucerne

The Lucerne public-toilet masterplan is still being worked on, and the situation there is quite variable. Older toilet facilities are still gender-segregated, and will remain that way, but where newer ones are built, they are generally unisex. Not all facilities have a wheelchair-accessible toilet, but this is improving and all the facilities scheduled to be built will have one. The public toilets in Lucerne do not have changing tables.

Winterthur

Good news! All the public toilets in Winterthur (map) are gender neutral, with the exceptions of those at Härti Endstation (Wülflingen) and Wallrüti (Oberwinterthur).

St. Gallen

In general, public toilets in St. Gallen (map) are unisex facilities with a wheelchair-accessible toilet, which normally requires a Eurokey to open. There are still a few older, gender-segregated toilets in operation, though. None of the public toilets have changing tables, due to a lack of room in the cabins.

Lugano

Some public toilets in Lugano are unisex and some are gender-segregated, but I've not been told which are which. There is no city map for toilets in Lugano, but they are shown on the WC-Guide and the Pro Infirmis website.

Thun

The official flyer for public toilets in Thun is up-to-date. Toilets #2 and #12 are unisex, at the following locations:

  • Jäger-Stübli, Militärstrasse 9
  • Dampfschiff, Hofstettenstrasse 20 (also wheelchair-accessible)

Köniz

The community of Köniz maintains only two public toilets, one at Oberwangen railway station and one at Neuhausplatz in Könizs. Both are gender-segregated and wheelchair-accessible.

Chur

Public toilets in Chur (map) are all gender-segregated, except for the fully-automated 'Swisstoilet' on Austrasse. There are six wheelchair-accessible public WCs in Chur, but I've not been told which ones. None of the public toilets in Chur have changing tables.

Neuchâtel

The people at Neuchâtel have sent me a detailed list of all their public toilets -- unfortunately, it's in French and a little too detailed for me to quickly make sense of! I will post this information as soon as I can.

Uster

In Uster, as in other cities on this list, they're moving away from gender-segregated toilets and towards unisex facilities. I haven't been told the locations of any of them, though. Their new toilets generally have changing tables built in, unless there's a risk of vandalism.

Sion

I got a very concise response to my email to the Sion city council. There is no list or map of their public toilets; the toilets are all gender-segregated; they are accessible for wheelchair users; and they do not have changing tables.

Sunday 24 August 2014

Bericht von August

Dieses Wochenende hatte ich wieder Zeit, an dem Project zu arbeiten. Was ich gemacht habe:
  • Das @CrowdPee-Bot läuft wieder, nach eine Weile Downtime.
  • Es wird auch kunftig einfacher, die CrowdPee-Datenbank zu aktualisieren. (Die offene Daten, auf der es sich basiert, wird jährlich veröffentlicht.) Auf der Fragenbogenseite kannst du über Zürcher Toiletten berichten und die Resultaten herunterladen!
  • Schliesslich ist die Seite über öffentlichen WC-Anlagen in der 20 grössten Städte der Schweiz nun aktuell. Zürich ist noch die einzige Stadt, von der ich weiss, dass die öffentlichen Toiletten geschlechtsneutral sind, und Biel hat seit Jahresanfang keine städtische Toiletten mehr. Die übrige 18 Stadtsverwaltungen habe ich heute (auf drei Sprachen!) gemailt und die Infos gebeten. Ich hoffe für schnellen Antworten!

August updates

I had some time to work on the project this weekend, and here's what I got done:
  • The @CrowdPee bot is up and running again, after a bit of downtime.
  • It's also going to be easier to update the CrowdPee database from now on. (The open data it's based on is released once a year.) Go to the questionnaire website to tell us about Zürich toilets or get the results!
  • Finally, the page on public toilets for the 20 biggest cities in Switzerland is now up-to-date. Zürich is still the only city for which I know that the public toilets are gender-neutral, and Biel no longer has public toilets at all, but I've emailed all the other city councils to request this information. I hope they get back to me quickly!

Thursday 17 July 2014

Geschlechtsneutrale Toiletten in Berlin (nochmal!)

Ich bin jetzt für die Open Knowledge Festival in Berlin, und schaue eifrig nach geschlechtsneutrale Toiletten aus. Bis heute habe ich keine in Restauranten, Clubs, Bars usw. gesehen (ich bin aber nicht wirklich hier durch die Clubs zu ziehen!) und REFUGE Restrooms haben nur drei Einträge für die ganze Stadt. Wenn du weisst, wo die geschlechtsneutrale Toiletten hier sind, dann bitte sage mir oder füge sie direkt in ihre Datenbank hinein!

Die Berliner öffentliche Toiletten finde ich aber sehr eindrücklich. Hier sind ein paar Bilder, die ich heute Morgen gemacht habe: die City Toilette ist rollstuhlgängig und nicht geschlechtsgetrennt, und hat Anleitungen auf vier Sprachen. Ausser man eine EuroKey hat, kostet es 50 Cents, die Toilette zu benutzen.




Ich habe auch entdeckt, das es in die Frauenklo der Kino in der Kulturbrauerei ein Pissoir gibt:


Das ist etwas, das ich nicht vorher gesehen habe, und ich würde gern hören, ob es zweckmässig ist!

Keine der Toiletten des Veranstaltungsorts sind geschlechtsneutral, aber OKFest haben einen Schild aufgehangt, um einige zu konvertieren. Sie haben auch schnell reagiert, als ich sagte, das ich die Toiletten nicht finden konnte!



Gender-neutral public toilets in Berlin (again)

I'm in Berlin for Open Knowledge Festival, and keeping an eye out for gender-neutral toilets as I go. So far I haven't found any in restaurants, clubs, bars etc. (not that I'm really here for clubbing!) and REFUGE Restrooms only have three entries for the city. If you know where the gender-neutral toilets are here, please let me know or add them directly to the REFUGE Restrooms directory!

I am impressed with the Berlin public toilets, though. Here are some pictures I took of a City Toilette: it's wheelchair accessible, non-gendered, and has instructions for use in four languages. Note that unless you have a EuroKey, it costs 50 cents to use the toilet.




I also discovered that in the Kino in der Kulturbrauerei, the women's toilets have a urinal:


This is something I haven't seen before, and I'd welcome opinions on whether this is useful or not!

None of the toilets at the venue are gender-neutral, but OKFest put a sign up to convert one, and also marked it on the map. They responded quickly when I told them I couldn't find it!



Sunday 2 March 2014

Unisex-Klos in Berlin!

Guten Nachrichten aus Berlin: vor einem Jahr hat die Bezirksverordnetenversammlung (BVV) in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg entschlossen, geschlechtsneutralen Toiletten in all ihren öffenlichten Gebäuden zu bringen. Jetzt mag der Bezirk Mitte das Gleiche tun.

In Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg hat die Piraten-Partei die Massnahme vorgeschlagen, und die Linke, SPD und Grüne haben sie unterstützt. (Nur die CDU war dagegen.) Die Piraten haben nun auch die BVV in Mitte angefragt zu prüfen, in welche öffentlichen Gebäuden solche Toiletten passen können. Sie wollen die ,,klassischen“' zwei Optionen behalten, und zudem eine dritte, unisexe Alternative hinzufügen, um das Leben für transexuellen, intersexuellen und genderqueeren Leute leichter zu machen. Zwar sind die Bezirken in Berlin knapp bei Kasse, aber die Piraten meinen, dass es fast kostenneutral wäre, die Schilde vor der Türen auszutauschen.

Viele öffentlichen Gebäuden dort haben noch nicht rollstuhlgängigen Toiletten. Laut Piraten Lena Rohrbach, „Das ist ebenfalls sehr wichtig, schließt sich aber nicht aus, und die Gruppen sollten auch nicht gegeneinander ausgespielt werden.“ Ich stimme herzlich zu.

Quellen:

Unisex toilets in Berlin!

Good news from Berlin: the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg decided to bring unisex toilets to all its public buildings a year ago, and now the borough of Mitte might follow suit.

The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg measure was proposed by the Pirate Party and supported by the Left, Social Democrat and Green parties on the borough council. (The Christian Democrats were against it.) The Pirates have now also asked the borough council in Mitte to find out which public buildings there are suitable for unisex toilets. They want to keep the men's and women's options, but add a third room as an extra choice, with the aim of making life easier for trans* and intersex people. Public finances in Berlin are tight, but the Pirates point out that changing signs on toilet doors would be practically cost-neutral.

Many public buildings there don't yet have wheelchair-accessible toilets. The Pirate Party representative Lena Rohrbach acknowledged that this was also very important, and emphasised that the groups should not be played off against one another. I heartily agree.

Sources: