AIBU - Weeing in lay-bys is anti social and fines should apply

[Thriftnugget]

Item in the news- Dacorum Borough Council have stopped issuing fines for wild wees in lay-bys.
I know that this is on a technicality (anti littering law used and wild wees not classed as litter) but I think people weeing in lay-bys is appalling. It should be subject to fines. I can forgive toddlers/ young children but not adults. There are solutions for those with medical conditions that mean urgent wees are a symptom. And it’s always men. Women need urgent wees too (possibly more so, pregnancy etc) and we don’t pull up in lay-bys and squat in front of passing traffic. AIBU?

This.

Another issue is that lots of public toilets now charge you - where my parents live (very busy tourist area) there are no longer any free public toilets. You need to have cash on you and pay 40p every time.

So even if you do find somewhere with a bathroom, you may not be able to access it anyway.

we don’t pull up in lay-bys and squat in front of passing traffic.

Yes we do, a 4 door car, both doors open on the side away from the road, works very well in extremis!

I couldn’t see it to get it out, so I had to ask a woman with a dog, at the campsite 😳.

Lots and lots of wild wees here...urine is sterile. I'm not flashing bits of my body. Dog poo and litter is a bigger issue

Size/smell and how interested my dog is in it 😱

It's already against the law.

Breach of the peace covers this if a police officer is inclined to charge someone

LOL have you ever stopped on a lay-by on a French country road. It's not just the smell of wee it's the stink of human faeces.
The motorways are well served by rest stops but the countryside is disgusting

OMG!!! 😬😂

That's so awful/hilarious. Hope you both managed to laugh!

Not always men, I do this

I cannot stand when you can see the stream of it, they should at least stand behind a tree.

anyway - me and the kids amuse ourselves by opening the window and shouting ‘pee pee, wee wee’ at them… childish yes… but hilarious to my toddlers and an innocent giggle 🤣

I presume that you are someone that has not travelled widely or ever got stuck in a major traffic jam.

At first glance I thought there was some campaign against people weeping [in cars] in lay-bys, something I've done in my time; it's a right I would defend heartily. But now I can put my battleaxe down.

https://www.livescience.com/health/is-pee-sterile#:~:text=So%20Wolfe%2C%20Mueller%20and%20others,in%20the%20human%20body%20does.
This is a distraction but the sterility of urine has been shown to be untrue.
however, my objection is not related to whether or not urine is sterile or not. It has the potential to create a stink in the right circumstances and I don’t wish to see people pissing as I drive past. If they hop over the fence or similar and pee in a field I have no objection. Perhaps it’s a “where you live” thing but I fairly often see men pissing in full public view on the lay-bys of A roads.

I see a lot of of dicks out on display on the road between kettering and the M1
It must be a local thing.

Remember also how the widespread closure of public toilets during lockdown (not “the pandemic”) acted as a urinary leash, when the only thing you were allowed to do was go for walk, with the mythical 1-hour limit.

When my scaffolder was here last week (before this news story) I asked him if he and his mate wanted to use the toilet and we had a good long chat about it because most ordinary people do not realise the massive issue it is for men on the road. My son was a delivery driver for 4 years. There are very few facilities anywhere. One reason it is hard to get lorry drivers in the UK is because unlike France there are not lovely places you can stop the lorry with toilets. Instead drivers have just about no facilities in the UK and no one cares unless they happen to know about the issue.

*puts hand up, I definitely asked.

fair enough, I haven’t, nor travelled with anyone, who felt the need over any distance to use a lay-by for any of those things. Genuinely, it’s just not something that has ever cropped up. The lay-by’s I see usually have a hgv in them or what I presume are break downs (or now people answering natures call).

I just think it’s a fairly odd and slightly vulnerable place to stop if you don’t have to (although maybe I listen to too many serial killer podcasts).

This.

All those arguing that with their back to the road, the men pissing on hard shoulders and laybys can't be seen ... Yes, they can - as you approach them from the side you can often see exactly what's happening, especially as it often happens in slow traffic. Just find a bush or a bit of cover for God's sake, or I will call you an exhibitionist.

Yes totally agree. DS is often in this quandry in his line of work

We had a female postie for a few years and I told her she could use our loo if she needed to.

On a tour in India there were some long days on the bus, every couple of hours out in the country the bus would stop for a 'bush stop', men one side of the road and the women on the other!

It's what you're implying though isn't it? Your use of the word 'appalling' in your op suggests so. Has it not occurred to you that some people do it because they have to, not because they choose to? And yes examining other peoples toilet habits does make you nosey imo.

@NewIcedC0ffee I would say you presume wrong. I regularly visit family 150miles away by road and my job requires the need to drive up to a similar distance across 2 regions of England. And I’ve been many a major tailback regretfully. @Cornettoninja I don’t particularly love lay-bys but they serve a purpose if you are on a long journey, especially by yourself with no one to hand you said tissue etc.
Whether I travel long journeys or not though shouldn’t make a difference to whether I object to seeing people standing in public areas having a wee. In fact the place I see it frequently is on an 8mile stretch of A road which is a trunk road between motorways and also connects my home village with the nearest big town. Those pissers would have less than 8 miles to travel in either direction to reach a motorway service station (one way) and a small town service station the other. And if were to be gridlocked and they were desperate there are hedges and fields beyond the lay-bys.