I notice that whenever I enter a men’s room with more than one urinal, one will always be low to the ground. They’re kid-sized, but they’re usually in office buildings designed for and occupied by grown-ups.
I suppose they could be for handicapped people, but I imagine anyone who’s non-ambulatory would want to use the handicapped stall.
In most of these restrooms, there’s no lowered sink, so whatever special accommodation they’re making begins and ends at the urinal.
So, is there some sort of regulation that requires these lowered bowls, or is it just an inexplicable quirk of modern WC design?
I see them everywhere, in movie theaters and fast food restaurants and mall food courts. I find it surprising when I don’t see them. I don’t get into office buildings much these days, though, but I assume that children must enter them at some point. Since adults can use them, why not make one urinal dually available for kids?
I hardly ever see a guy using the short urinal. Even if all the other ones are taken, guys will wait for a regular size one to open up rather than use the small urinal. I think it’s just a part of the unspoken urinal rules.
They’re for the men of the Straight Dope. When was the last time you hear a male doper claim to have a member that was less than porn star proportions?
It’s for me. I’m 5’6" and a lot of the times the regular urinal is right at junk level. I can’t stand “over” the urinal, I’d have to sand in front of it and fire hose the back wall. The lower one allows me to to position myself closer to it and pee smoothly down the sides so I don’t get any splash.
Just don’t take the urinal next to me. That’s rule number 1!
I always use the short urinal at work unless it’s occupied, because it’s the one closest to the door. I’ve never seen anyone refuse to use a short urinal if it’s the only one available. But then, perhaps you’ve made a closer study of men’s urinal habits than I have.
It’s building codes . They are for wheel-chair and small people access.
From ANSI 4.8:
“Any toilet or bathing room provided with urinals must have at least one that is low-mounted and with an elongated rim. It must project far enough from the wall to allow a person in a wheel-chair to get close enough to the rim before the Footrests of the wheelchair hit the wall under the fixture. Urinals that project less than 14 inches generally are not usable by someone using a wheelchair. Urinals with receptacles located in the floor are acceptable. Regardless of the type of Fixture, the flush mechanism must be mounted low enough so that it can be reached by a person seated in a wheelchair.”
I always wondered about this, although it’s been very convenient for my son to use a shorty .
But recently I was at a rest stop on an interstate and saw a man in a wheelchair pulled up to one of those. I couldn’t believe he was going to be able to reach it from the chair, but I could see he had some sort of deal where he peed through a hose into a plastic bag, then emptied the bag into the urinal. (I did not ask him whether it would be easier to use a sit-downer in a stall.)
I don’t know if that was considered in the design, but it is a single data point.
Clarification request - your cited material says nothing about “short people.”
I guess I never really thought about this before, but while I have seen men in wheelchairs use the accessible stalls, I have never seen a wheelchair pulled up to a short urinal.
