Talk:Tag:amenity=toilets

By accessibility

Resolved: wheelchair=yes it is and has been for some time --achadwick 21:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I would add wheelchair=yes/no to Extended Usage. Maybe also something to show if a fee is to be paid? --Colin Marquardt 11:25, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I agree with wheelchair=yes/no and also with fee=yes/no --Stefku 17:02, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

There's a proposal open for wheelchair=*: Proposed_features/wheelchair; you probably know already, of course, I'm just linking it here --achadwick 17:46, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Another topic is accessibility for the blind - often in Germany toilets are good for wheelchair users, and hygenic through touchless water sensors visually impaired persons can't find. That's a typical: blind=limited. --Lulu-Ann 10:28, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

This should be proposed somewhere else. It's more widely useful than just a discussion of toilet facilities --achadwick 21:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

It was approved key:wheelchair=* some time ago. We should update amenity=toilets page. User:MrFrem82 10.44, 26 Agosto 2010 (UTC)

How would you tag the accessibility of a free toilet inside a larger paid area, like a zoo or themepark? For people already in the themepark, it is as it were access=public, while for people outside, it would be access=customers. And inside a themepark, you could still have access=customers, requiring a fee to get into the themepark, then require a purchase at a bar to use the toilets. IIVQ (talk) 11:15, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Tag access=customers. A person inside a theme park is no different than a person inside a shop. Added fee=yes for if there's an extra fee. Brycenesbitt (talk) 19:34, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

There are schemes that provide keys for locked disabled toilets such as the Euro Key in Germany or the NKS/Radar key in the UK. There is an emerging access=key tag, but it doesn't specify if a toilet uses one of these keys. Should there be something like access=euro_key/nks_key for these toilets? --EvanOdell 11:44, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

By sex

How should women/men only bathrooms be tagged? This is usefol for when they are physically separated. Xeen

Some suggestions: men=yes/no women=yes/no babys_changing_table=yes/no warm_water=yes/no shower=yes/no --Erde12 23:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

• Some of these might be quite useful elsewhere. men=* and women=* sounds like an access tag, showers are generally nice things to have (speaking as a cyclist), and recent mums and dads will surely appreciate baby changing facilities. baby_changing=yes/no for that last one, for brevity? --achadwick 13:11, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
  • See below. toilet:changing_table=yes seems fine to me. --achadwick 22:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

• Another idea for sex-limited access would be toilets=gents, toilets=ladies, toilets=unisex etc. But that might be conflating form with access. Hmm. --achadwick 13:11, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
  • Yeah, let's not do it that way. Go with the established practice and use male=*, female=* and others, since that is most prevalent in Taginfo. --achadwick 22:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

• Seems annoying to have to set men=no for a women's toilet. What about simply sex=male/female (could also apply to school, in whose Talk page Lulu-Ann suggests gender=male/female). Lorp 14:49, 10 August 2010 (BST)
  • "Gender" is better than "sex" because "sex" is filtered by our spam bots... Lulu-Ann
  • Simply let male=yes on its own imply female=no, unisex=no etc. unless overridden. And let unisex toilets imply access for all. I think that covers it. --achadwick 22:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

• I'd prefer drinking_water=yes/no and water=yes/no/warm/cold --Lulu-Ann 10:26, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
  • Suggest just using amenity=drinking_water on a separate node. But see below for fuller discussion --achadwick 22:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Taginfo says that "sex" is more widespread than "gender", or gender-specific version of toilets=*. So let's go with that and write it up fully. Consensus yet? --achadwick 22:46, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

• There is quite a bit on the web about 'gender-neutral' toilets, see safe2pee. The current extent of tagging suggestions does not seem to cover this use case. -- SK53 11:55, 29 March 2011 (BST)

Sex or capacity ?

I confuse which one i should use? male=yes/no female=yes/no unisex=yes/no or capacity:women=yes/no/number (and may be similar capacity:man=yes/no/number) ?? https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:capacity

By type (squat vs. seated; urinals; flushing mechanism)

A recent visit to Italy revealed quite a number of 'hole in the floor' toilets. I presume its not just wheelchair users who might prefer an alternative if available. Similarly, there is no provision for a urinal/pissoir with no other facilities (perhaps not as common as they used to be). I leave it for others to suggest appropriate tags. -- SK53 18:42, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

-- The following types are ideal:

Type=squat_toilet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet

Type=urinal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urinal

type=Flush_toilet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet

--BDROEGE 10:26, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

we should also include the flush/sewer type. In Finland you often find Outhouses with no flush/sewer. But this should be a distinct feature and should not be related to your type definition (squat/urinal/flush). Maybe something like sewer=no, flush=no. --Marc 09:12, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Strong -1 to using "type" as the key name. This is horrible tagging anywhere; see below --achadwick 22:08, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I am also missing a tag for latrine (dry toilet, often of wood - http://blog.sme.sk/blog/8973/158452/latrina.JPG) --*Martin* 27 October 2010

Could you provide a Wikipedia link please? --achadwick 22:08, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I think it is an outhouse what I was looking for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outhouse). I often see those in forests and nearby chalets. --*Martin* 17:24, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I disagree with using one key for all of these different ideas. What about facilities with more than one type of stall or stand? Suggest being brave and using the toilet: namespace for saying more about the kind of toilet it is because this sort of meaning really isn't relevant to other types of amenity and I can just see "seated" being a word that can be used to describe some other sort of facility. I propose:

Key	Values	Description
toilet:squat	yes/no	Toilet which can be used in the squatting position are available.
toilet:seated	yes/no	Toilets which can be used in the seated position are available.
toilet:urinals	yes/no	Urinal stands are available.
toilet:flushing	yes/no/user-defined	If not "no", all or some of the toilets are fitted with a flushing mechanism. There are several different flushing mechanisms: earth, water, proximity-based, chain; for now we just care about whether mechanisms exist.

Any more? Which works a bit like fuel=*, with the namespacing and the colons. The defaults are all by country or by sex/gender-role, so I'm not noting those. Use the tags if you need to make the distinction where you live. --achadwick 22:08, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I suggested also a distinction based on male/female (http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2012-May/010420.html this thread) --Sarchittuorg 10:18, 27 May 2012 (BST)

How to tag Porta-johns? Despite being portable, often parks choose to maintain these year around instead of a permanent facility. Brianegge (talk) 01:21, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

I added "tank" as an option. I live in Japan, and there are hundreds of parks & sports facilities (usually in the river flood plain, inside the levee) where sewers are not present, so they use thousands of portable toilets with permanent mappable positions in the parks that are there for decades. Some are temporarily moved out of the floodplain before typhoons and placed back in the same positions. A way to tag "permanent 'portable' toilets" is necessary, and "tank" is their storage/disposal method.

How does one tag toilets where different types have different fees? I have seen a few where urinals are free but seated is paid. - 4b3eff (talk) 14:17, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Accessories

what about hand_washbasin=yes/no to indicate the presence of such? In public urinals they are not necessarily present --Dieterdreist 15:09, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Diaper changing table

Is there a tag to indicate that there is a diaper changing table? Such tables are often present near or inside public toilets. --Head 01:13, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

How about adding diaper=yes/no to the toilets-tag? Lulu-Ann

Suggest using the term "changing table" as the basis of this new tag because "diaper" and "nappy" are not 100% understood even within English-speaking countries (the former is US usage, the latter is Commonwealth/GB). Perhaps it should be placed under the toilet: namespace as described above? toilet:changing_table=yes, perhaps. --achadwick 22:14, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

According to taginfo, people have been using baby_changing=yes/no (and someone also baby_change=*). Sounds good to me. --gbilotta 11:20, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

(Drinkable) water

Resolved: There is an existing tag. Use that if you can first. --achadwick 22:23, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Most toilets have a sink with water (at least in my country). It can be useful to know that for people looking just for some water. What about using something like sink=no/drinkable/undrinkable Arenevier

Not everywhere offers hand-washing, so it may be worth having that. Suggest you use a new tag like toilet:hand_washing=yes/no/minimal for the presence of hand-washing facilities in toilets. Covers the ever-popular bucket and (optional) piece of soap too. --achadwick 22:23, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

As for drinking water consider using amenity=drinking_water in the first instance on a nearby new Node. If you absolutely positively have to do the two things at once, perhaps then create and document toilet:drinking_water=yes/no. It would seem to be more hygienic tagging to keep things separate ☺ --achadwick 22:23, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Outhouse/composting toilets

Please suggest a way to describe whether it is a watercloset type of toilet or some kind not attached to the sewer, like wikipedia:Outhouse. Whether there is water for washing hands is relevant in this context. vibrog 21:17, 20 September 2010 (BST)

See above for hand-washing. For the usage you want, try toilet:outhouse=yes for old-fashioned ones with an external outhouse construction, or toilet:composting=yes for more modern designs. Both probably require something like toilet:flushing=no. --achadwick 22:30, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

{{Resolved|operator=* You now have "toilets:disposal=pitlatrine", and "toilets:handwashing=no" if you like. Explore building tags if the difference between wood and concrete construction is important to you. Brycenesbitt (talk) 17:40, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Operator?

If operator=* were added to toilets it might then be possible to determine which are the public (government/council) run facilities and which are others. I think this would be better than adding either public=yes or designation=public which were other things I considered first. Comments? --EdLoach 11:26, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Resolved: operator=* is now a part of the voted description.Brycenesbitt (talk) 04:50, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Dry Toilet

On 23-May-2015 toilets:disposal=dry toilet was added without discussion. Is this not a type of pit toilet? From a rendering point of view should it not render the same as a pit toilet? Brycenesbitt (talk) 16:44, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

toilets=yes if amenity=toilets is mapped already

Is it a good idea to use toilets=yes tag if toilet is already tagged as a separate object (like at http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=50.06677&mlon=19.94591#map=19/50.06677/19.94591) ? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 04:50, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

One feature, one OSM element#Examples of bad situations, Davileci (talk) 21:13, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

I think that good. amenity=toilets says "it is toilets" and toilets=yes says "toilets is available in this building or place". Something B (talk) 21:23, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Gender neutral, gender segregated and unisex=yes

Does unisex=yes mean (a) gender neutral (e.g. a unisex toilet), or (b) gender segregated, but there is male & female facilities? In English "unisex" means gender neutral, so some mappers enter unisex=yes for that[1][2][3]. This wiki page is ambiguous, and implies (a). How do you map a gender segregated, non-unisex, toilet which serves male & female? How do you map one a unisex, gender neutral toilet?

• 
  A unisex toilet
• 
  Not a unisex toilet

talk@ mailing list discussion | OSM Forum discussion | unisex=* wiki talk discussion

Rorym (talk) 07:43, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

building=toilets

Any objections to adding a note about this to this page? It has 5k uses already and makes sense when the toilets are in a dedicated toilets block/building. Not to be used if toilets inside other building. Aharvey (talk) 10:57, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Private outhouse

access=private Discouraged.

OK, but mention how to tag a private outhouse next to a private home on private land. Jidanni (talk) 02:30, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

You can map it as a building=toilet or building=toilets (depending if there is one or more stalls), but don't add the amenity=* tag, since it's not of interest to database users, other than that it's a building. --Jeisenbe (talk) 04:32, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

OK, but using the iD editor, users will create

amenity=toilets

building=yes

access=private

However this violates "Description A publicly accessible toilet" seen on Tag:amenity=toilets, etc. etc. So maybe someone should file a bug against iD. Thanks. Jidanni (talk) 02:11, 11 October 2019 (UTC) 

What is exactly being improve here?

Can you explain exactly was improved in https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag:amenity%3Dtoilets&oldid=prev&diff=2279654 ? @Mentor: ? And why mixing in HTML is supposed to be superior? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 22:00, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

First you must explain why you have determined that it is not, and what your standing for asking is? Mentor (talk) 18:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Removing html tags and replacing be wiki markup is preferable. My standing is that I plan to revert it to version without HTML inmix and it was claimed that this version is somehow preferable, so I am asking for info what is wrong with cleaned version Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 21:25, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

HTML removed in https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag:amenity%3Dtoilets&diff=2332458&oldid=2279654 Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 04:23, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

Resolved: Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 04:23, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

room=toilet

I wanted to reference room=toilet, but I wouldn't know where since there's no "See also" paragraph and I don't know in which of the other ones is best suited. Also I would like to note that room=toilets is marked as a to-be-avoided value in the room key wiki, and that it should be replaced with amenity=toilets. But amenity toilets is for toilets accessible from the public only, so I think that room=toilets should be considered a valid tagging for private toilets, and not "deprecated".--Ivanbranco (talk) 12:08, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

It seems room=toilet is used for indoor mapping where the room has only one toilet. Room=toilets means a room with more than one toilet. That is either A) A restroom somehow accessible to the public perhaps with "access=[limited somehow but not "private"]" or B) A private room for partnered pooing, which might be a new tag. --GreyTK (talk) 06:28, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

/* Disposal into a lined pit really needs its own designation */

First, about pitlatrine. I wish to clarify this to specifically an unlined pit. The words actually refer to an unlined hole in the ground, not a lined hole in the ground. The difference between lined and unlined is important to land managers since unlined holes leech their content into the surrounding area. It might be important to the user simply because a lined hole tends to have a nicer building on top of it. Or, indeed, a building.

Second, about tank. Is this a buried tank or above ground tank? The clarification that it is "often used for portable toilets" seems to imply it is just a chemical toilet without chemicals. Or is it just a chemical toilet and of no use as an addition?

My interest is to correctly tag what the United States National Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, many state parks systems all call "vault toilets". Vault toilets use a buried tank in the ground that gets pumped out as needed. I have been reluctant to tag these as "pitlatrine" because, as stated above, it is actually important that the hole is lined and that refers to an unlined hole. I hesitate to use "tank" since the current description seems to imply a much less permanent structure than the vault toilets I wish to tag. My preference would be to use "vault" for "waste falls into a lined pit such as a buried storage tank". That's my first draft for a description anyway.

Hygiene -> bad_smell/visual_appearance

I would add a tag for the smell and visual appearance. I think it's a welcome addition.

bad_smell=yes/no, pleasant_appearance=yes/no.

This is out-of-scope for OSM. Everyone can have their own criteria. Verifiability
You should only use OSM as the reference data in your own map, or application. Then you can add your own ratings.
—— Kovposch (talk) 07:23, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Stoma-friendliness

The wiki page mentions toilets:ostomy=yes/no - Is stoma friendly?, but I have no idea what this means and when I can apply this tag. Should a certain device be present to help stoma-users? --Pietervdvn (talk) 16:41, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Yes, see Stoma Friendly Accessible Toilets or Toilets for people with a stoma --Davileci (talk) 20:58, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Here is an example from the Ondara shopping center, the most important for a stoma friendly toilet is a low sink, hand shower with trigger, automatic liquid soap dispenser and extension cable and a mirror.

• 
• 
• 

--Offsel (talk) 22:47, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

Can we come up with standard tags for each of these things? They are useful to other people, too, especially in things like campgrounds. I used these tags recently:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/12277148098

amenity=toilets
handwashing:soap=yes
toilets:handwashing=yes
toilets:mirror=yes
toilets:shelf=yes
waste_basket=no

And it would be nice to tag which bathrooms have nice faucet handles vs the annoying ones that turn off the instant you let go... Brightj (talk) 16:28, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

Hey User:Bright - I've already done some tagging work [this wiki page]. I'd love to have more tagging worked out on the wiki and I'll gladly integrate that tagging into mapcomplete --Pietervdvn (talk) 19:47, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

handwashing:soap or toilets:handwashing:soap ?

I've noticed that we use toilets:handwashing=yes (with toilets prefix), but to indicate further facilities, handwashing:soap=* is used (without prefix). Wouldn't it be better to make this uniform? --Pietervdvn (talk) 20:35, 6 June 2025 (UTC)

handwashing=* is broader, as not all hand sanitation devices are in amenity=toilets . toilets:*=* is preferably used with toilets=yes only. Same for others, except those actually about the toilet closet itself. Although toilets:menstrual_products=* passed voting, there was much criticisms and limitations about it.
As an example for problems in other, toilets:paper_supplied=* can only handle toilet paper vaguely. Nothing for hand towels.
—— Kovposch (talk) 10:56, 7 June 2025 (UTC)

How to tag the presence of a bidet shower (aka Health faucet) and similar devices?

Thus: a detachable shower head next to the toilet, as described on Bidet Shower (Wikipedia) --Pietervdvn (talk) 13:51, 7 June 2025 (UTC)

"toilets:wash=shower" appears to be the tag you're looking for. The discussion in this thread appears to be recommend the tag "toilets:wash", and only three values are in use so far: shower, no, water_dipper, though there's mention in the thread for a couple of conceptual values that could be used. GOwin (talk) 01:35, 10 June 2025 (UTC)