I saw in Lewisham a bilboard for a website containing a toilet app:
It seems they’re pushing a few apps:
Great British Toilet Map
Toilets4London
Flush Toilet App
I installed Toilets4London and it has more toilets than are present in OsmAnd.
It seems to me that this should be “centralized” somehow, not scattered across different apps. If some localauthority is publishing this information, it would be better to do so to OSM directly.
Let me know if I’m completely off here - first post etc etc.
PS I tried attaching screenshots from Toilets4London and OsmAnd, but was told that new members can only have 1 attachment, so no screenshots for you I guess.
Toilets4London doesn’t seem to have an explicit license at all (from a cursory glance, anyway).
Flush Toilet App doesn’t even seem to list where they get their data from (again, cursory glance).
As such I don’t think any of this data is under a compatible license such that you could import it - you’d need to reach out to the data owners and ask them to provide it under a compatible license, essentially. Maybe they’d be open to it?
With that said, I’ll defer to others on how free you are to use the information provided on that website (which, notably, isn’t the Lewisham Council Website) to populate the map for Lewisham specifically.
And of course, if you wanted to go for a walk informed by that list, you’re free to do what you like
Whilst we obviously cannot copy from those maps there is no reason why they cannot inspire a local mapper to survey these places.
I have looked at toiletmap around my local area and would certainly take it with a large pinch of NaCl before adding to OSM, some are toilets in pubs which are for customer use. Also incomplete as only one of the two public toilets is included.
Another in the nearby big town station, yes its mapped in OSM but is only accessible if you have valid rail ticket, so again access=customers.
Thank you both for the responses. If I willing to casually, though not systematically, go on a walk to some of those places, what’s the lowest effort way to add that data into OSM A) from android, B) from a desktop? I did one yesterday (which incidentally wasn’t in any of those apps). But it was like: I accidentally found it, mentally took note, and when I got home logged into the OSM default editor on my laptop, and addeed it. Still hasn’t been reviewed, I think.
For Android I would recommend StreetComplete. The “things” layer supports adding new toilets. There is also an “Are there any toilets here?” quest for some amenities. I can’t remember if the quest is enabled by default, but if it isn’t you should be able to turn it on in the settings.
For the desktop the easiest way is probably via MapComplete’s Public Toilets theme. I think MapComplete also has an Android app now, but I haven’t tried it yet.
These are all good for adding separate public toilets; I don’t think either are good for adding toilet tags e.g to a pub or a cafe though (I was just toying with both to see if they could be used for this).
MapComplete says it shows ones already tagged on other amenities. I thought it was a map layer that would show amenities that often have customer accessible bathrooms and let you add the property to them, but i must be mixing it up with something else.
StreetComplete is meant to let you tag them on existing " shop=mall, shop=department_store, highway=services or highway=rest_area" which seems a little narrow, but might be deliberately restrictive to stop it being overly repetitive.
Ok so just to be clear. If I go on one of these Toilets4London-like apps, then physically visit a location and I verify that a toilet exists and it’s publicly available (suppose inside a Library). Do I add it as Thing on StreetComplete, or not?
No, don’t add it as a thing in StreetComplete. These aren’t distinct things, they’re features of existing things. StreetComplete can’t edit existing things (outside of “quests”).
From Android the easiest way is probably to install Every Door, select the relevant place, tap “More Fields” at the bottom of the app, and set the “Toilets” tag
As an aside - does anyone know how to tag RADAR keys for disables toilets.
“A RADAR key, also known as a National Key Scheme (NKS) key, is a blue and silver-coloured key that opens more than 10,000 disabled toilets across the UK. RADAR keys are used by around 400 local authorities to give people with disabilities access to locked accessible toilets.
The Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation, which is now Disability Rights UK, worked in partnership with Nicholls & Clarke, the inventors of the RADAR lock and together they created the National Key Scheme (NKS). The first RADAR locks were fitted in 1981 to help keep accessible toilets free and clean for people with disabilities.” RADAR Keys: what they are, where to use and how to get one
There is also map they link to https://www.toiletmap.org.uk/ which uses OSM as a baselayer with their data overlayed.
May I ask a follow up question, as I’m a bit confused. If I go on StreetComplete, choose Things, and click to add, “Toilets” is an option there. So what’s going on here? Is it that StreetComplete disagrees with you that “Toilet’s aren’t distinct things, they’re feature of existing things”? Or am I misunderstanding something?
I understand the confusion, and I’m sorry if this doesn’t help: it all depends on what you’re mapping, and the scale to which you’re mapping it at.
Consider an airport. You could just mark it as an airport on the map and be done with it. But airports are massive, so generally we map what’s inside the airport as well - shops, restaurants, etc. And at the scale of an airport, you’d create a “thing” (a node) where the toilets are.
Now consider a little cafe. The scale is much smaller, so generally you’d just map the cafe itself as a node, and then add tags to further define the features of the cafe (e.g. does it have a toilet).
If you wanted to, you could “micromap” the cafe, with all the walls and seats and the floors and what have you. At that scale, you would add the toilet as a node.[1]
If you’ve caught micromapping I do understand there are various support groups for this. ↩︎
They’re still worth checking and adding with toilets=yes and an either toilets:access=yes or toilets:access=customer tags. There are a few other tags relating to accessibility, baby changing facilities and availability of menstrual projects which could be surveyed at the same time (Vespucci displays many of these on the “properties” tab for at least pubs, bars, cafés, fast food and restaurants).
You might be forced to endure the hardship of having a drink while checking, an activity for which OSMF sadly doesn’t award grants
