Why do Europeans like open toilets on the streets?

If when we were walking down the street, we saw a large group of people gathered in a bunch, what do you think they are doing? Smoking relieves addiction? Ready for stubble frame? Or just eating melon in gossip?

And the Dutch will give you another answer, which is

Urinate in the street.

This open-air toilet standing on the street is a legal toilet facility established by the local government. People walk on the streets of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, and take the video to record it as an outdoor urinal.

A tourist used his mobile phone to take pictures of the Dutch people going to the toilet on the street. From the picture, it can be confirmed that the urinating citizens and the passers-by can really make eye greetings. For me, in this kind of public situation, I may be so embarrassed that I can't get out of the toilet.

The ubiquitous open-air urinal in the Netherlands is not an exclusive facility in this city. In many countries in Europe, you can find such open-air toilets on the street.

What's more interesting is that these outdoor urinals are used very frequently in the local area. Why do Europeans favor semi-open street toilets so much?

The reasons are roughly divided into two: one is its own reasons-street urinals have a history of nearly 200 years in Europe. One is set off by peers-indoor public toilets are expensive and inconvenient.

Let us first talk about the origin and development of street urinals in Europe. The European people in the 19th century retained a vice-to urinate and defecate everywhere, and this "feat" once caused many cities to be completely covered by the smell of excrement, including large cities such as London and Paris. Finally, in the spring of 1830, the French city of Paris decided to install the first public urinal on the main road.

This kind of open-air urinal is independent of the surrounding buildings, and it is very convenient to build and dismantle, and it can also provide a light public space. Thus, in the following decades, open-air toilets developed rapidly in France.

In their heyday, there were more than 1,500 urinals on the streets of Paris. They were all different in shape, size, and structure.

Today, the vice of urinating and defecating anywhere has not disappeared from Europe due to advances in technology and civilization.

The French internal data shows a clear number-40% of French men have the habit of frequent urination and defecation. This "frequent" is the kind of "frequent" that can be photographed by Google Street View. Therefore, this bad habit still exists for a day, and the open-air urinal still shoulders the heavy responsibility.

However, the semi-open spaces of street toilets always give people a sense of tension. Even so, they have not been eliminated by indoor public toilets. Why is that? This is about the various inconveniences of European public toilets. First, almost all fees are charged. Although public toilets in Europe are clean, most of them are charged. Either there are staff selling tickets at the door, or you need to the self-service coin.

Second, the store does not want to borrow. If you want to use their toilets, you must first consume them and become their customers. For example, McDonald's will print the password of the toilet door in the store on the receipt.

The street toilets are different, they are free and open, as you go. These two points make European people still rely on open-air toilets on the streets to this day-all relying on peers.

Since European people like open-air toilets so much, designers naturally have to innovate on them. In recent years, the privacy and convenience of many emerging open-air toilets have been improved.

For example, the open-air urinal in France uses a spiral design instead of a door lock, which not only protects privacy but is also convenient and fast. It is designed for women.

The elevating toilets in the Netherlands are disguised as sewage manhole covers on weekdays. When they are needed, small rooms with better sealing are slowly raised from the ground.

However, many open-air toilet users still have to face such an episode: you are looking at the scenery in the toilet, and the people watching the scenery look at you on the boat.