Service stations?

My ex was a wheelchair user and you often wouldn't find out whether a place was accessible until you got there. The last service station I remember going to with her, the main entrance was up a flight of stairs from the parking lot or you had to go down through the parking lot, which was quite steep, past the oncoming traffic, all the way around to get in without steps. Much longer distance and facing off against impatient traffic that's just come off a motorway.

There's also rarely any seats except in the actual restuarants and it's not clear if you can sit there if you're not eating.

In fact I think most 'general' seats are outside and usually occupied by smokers.

I never understood why public toilets get in such a mess. Even if they get cleaned 2 or 3 times a day it still only takes one user to make a mess just after they're cleaned to ruin it for the following people. I don't think that's the fault of the station, it's a societal issue and a lack of respect. I'm sure they don't treat toilets the same at home.

Hello all. I tend not to use service stations if I can help it. We travel from Cambridgeshire to Lincoln 3 times a year and each time we make sure we take food and drinks with us for the journey and we have 2 stops on the way. We don't take our own food and drink because we don't want to spend the extra in a service station but because I do not like busy places and feel much more comfortable sitting in the car with my wife knowing I'm not going to have a panic attack or get overwhelmed. We stop at 2 places on the way that we know are quite areas and it's ok to park for 20-30 minutes. We tend to stick to these as it helps me with my PTSD and routine and quite spaces help. Depending on the time we travel home and how busy the roads are we have stopped at some services knowing it's quite and have been ok. Mainly to use the toilets. But generally I like to have those 2 stops there and the same on the way home. I'd like to think I could sit in an area outside a service station but it would depend on how busy it was. I've noticed more shops are doing quite times for shopping where there is no loud music, nobody stacks shelves and staff are working quietly which is great for me personally. So maybe if some services had a quiet area where people who get overwhelmed or suffer from PTSD or similar then they have a safe space.

@OverlyAnxious

It might not be one person but a chain reaction started by one person. I've used a public loo before which wasn't filthy but had definitely not been left respectfully. Because of my OCD (or perhaps not – I assume even people without OCD prefer a loo without excrement on it) I struggled to use it but was desperate so kind of improvised. In the struggle I ended up making more of a mess, and I admit to not clearing up. If I make a mess in a clean loo I always clean it, but struggled with the idea that the mess wasn't all "mine" (not in a petulant way but a contamination way where my own mess is more manageable than others').