This. Think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, as well as other fires where people were killed because doors opened inward. I agree that for someone in desperate situations, it’s better to be able to push the door than pull it, but if you’re worried about fires, it makes more sense for doors to open outward, doesn’t it?
I would say stall-doors are a seperate issue.
This is the best solution and how it is implemented in exteremely high traffic areas such as airports, but it requires more room for a twisted hallway of some sort.
I like this. It admits the problem and offers a solution. Some doors may be tough to open if you have to pull it with your foot.
This whole thread sounds more like MSIMP, as opposed to a GQ. As you have already said that you see about 50/50 each way, what sort of factual answer are you seeking?
Apparently people strongly feel one way or the other about the situation. What criteria do architects and designers use to decide how the door will be?
Traffic concerns? Safety concerns? Sanitary concerns?
As the linked website above mentions: Why spend thousands of dollars on no-touch batroom technology and then make your users grab the door handle in order to get out? It is kind of self-defeating.
The linked website is marketed towards germ-a-phobes.
The bathroom and your own genitals aren’t neccesarily all that dirty. Washing your hands when you go to the bathroom is recommended because that’s where the sink is. Your hands accumulate bacteria through out the day touching all of the doors you walk through (not particularly the bathroom door), your computer keyboard, the telephone, the printer or fax machine, the book or documents you handle, etc. We all need to regularly clean our hands. Doing it when you go to the bathroom is a convenient time.
So you admit that all of the no-touch technology in bathrooms is not necessary. Either way, it does not make sense to have no-touch toilets, sinks, and towel dispensers and then make user grab the door. But designers are implementing these together. My question is why?
At first I thought you were referring to the stall doors - I hate it when normal-sized (read: small) stalls have doors that swing inward. I had to take my 4yo son to the bathroom the other day, and I literally had to lift him up over the toilet to close the door behind us. Glad I didn’t drop him.
I came to this thread to post about this–I just encountered one of these abominations last weekend. (At the Red Hot & Blue restaurant in Cedar Hill, Texas, for anyone who’s interested.) It totally sucked–I gave up after a couple seconds and just pulled the damn door open by hand. I suppose it would get easier with practice, if there were any good reason to practice such a useless skill.
I can’t see myself using one of those with my dress shoes. There’d be no traction!
This. Duh, indeed.
I don’t think you were the only one.
The solution is to wash your hands and dry them without throwing away the paper towel. Use the paper towel to open the door, and then hold it open with your foot while discarding the paper towel. Walk out, and allow door to close behind you. Problem solved.
Unless you’re in one of those annoying bathrooms that have only air hand dryers or put the trash receptacle too far from the door.
Since this is pretty much all opinion at this point, I’ve moved the thread to IMHO.
gimpy me would have trouble with it … so Ill just gimp off to the gimp bathroom with the door button.
I work in a modern big city office building (less than 10 years old, in San Francisco) and other than the exterior building doors every single door opens inward from the more common space to the less common space.
So when I get off the elevator I push a door to get out of the elevator bay into the common hallway, then push a door to get from the hallway into our office space then if I go into my bosses office I push her door. That is my normal office building experience. I would think it is probably true of any secure office environment as otheriwse the locking mechanism would be on teh exposed side of the doorway.
Not to mention enough distance from common areas (or enough noise) that the rest of your office wouldn’t have to hear what goes on inside.
I’d guess it is because most of the touchless technologies don’t really have anything to do with no-touch as other savings for the person who installs them.
Automatic flush toilets aren’t so much there so that you don’t have to touch the handle but so that whoever owns the bathroom doesn’t have to deal with the repercussions of people not flushing.
Automatic sink faucets aren’t there so you dn’t have to touch the sink but to better enable the bathroom owner to conserve water (and reduce the risk of vandalism from sinks left on with drains blocked).
Automatic towel dispensers are there to regulate how much paper people use by doling it out and hand dryers even more by eliminating paper altogether (not only the cost of buying but the cost of disposing).
I’ve used foot operated door openers before (like stepnpull) and they usually work very well. It really depends on whether or not the door closer is adjusted incorrectly by being too tight. The great thing is that it’s an option. You can still use the door handle if you want, the choice is yours.