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.