Gender-Neutral Mobile Toilet

The "gender-neutral mobile toilet" is not a widely recognized type of fixed facility, but there are related concepts such as "gender-neutral public toilets" and "tide toilets", which are detailed below:

Gender-Neutral Public Toilets

Shanghai once launched a pilot project for gender-neutral public toilets, but they have not been widely promoted. These toilets adopt an open layout with a large open-plan design. In terms of internal configuration, there are 10 unisex toilet stalls, including 6 seated toilets and 4 squat toilets, along with 4 men's urinals and 1 family restroom. None of the toilet stalls have "male" or "female" signs. To facilitate users in understanding the availability of toilet stalls, each stall door is equipped with an LED screen that displays the words "Occupied" or "Vacant" in red and green text, respectively.

The design intention behind gender-neutral public toilets is to explore solutions to the issue of an unreasonable ratio of male to female toilet stalls. Their open layout and large open-plan design allow for a certain degree of flexible allocation of toilet stalls based on actual usage, making them suitable for places with tidal changes in pedestrian flow. However, their promotion depends on the level of acceptance by the public, and there is currently no specific timetable for expansion.

Tide Toilets

Tide toilets can be regarded as a form of public toilet that dynamically adjusts the ratio of male to female toilet stalls based on pedestrian flow, featuring a similar flexibility in adjustment to gender-neutral mobile toilets. They achieve this by setting up a number of "unisex general-purpose toilet stalls" and using movable signs or lockable sliding doors to dynamically adjust access rights based on real-time pedestrian flow. This design can alleviate the common pain point of women having difficulty finding toilets in tourist attractions in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

For example, the "tide toilets" at West Lake Scenic Area in Huizhou, Guangdong, had manually adjustable signs at the entrance that could be switched between genders by sliding left or right. However, this design sparked controversy, and all the adjustable signs involved have been removed and will be replaced with fixed slot-type door plates. In addition, some parks and scenic areas in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Chongqing have also successively trialed "tide toilets", improving the efficiency of public toilet usage by flexibly adjusting the way toilet stalls are used.