Some of them have strong enough springs on the doors that you can’t just leave the door open (unless, maybe, you’re just washing your hands and the sink is close enough to the door that you can stick a foot in).
Anyway, I always knock first, and always lock the door when I’m inside, because why wouldn’t you?
It’s one of the unwritten rules–a social agreement–that we are not supposed to use the “other” restroom. The only way I’m going to violate that rule is if the alternative is worse. And that’s only the case if I absolutely must go ASAP.
Sure, I could choose to fight that particular idea, making it socially acceptable to use the other single occupancy restroom when mine is full. But it’s not a huge battle that I care about. I suspect that the trend is that single occupancy restrooms become unisex, so my fight would ultimately wind up entirely pointless anyways.
A lot of us are saying that the social agreement doesn’t really exist, or is so weak to be not universally observed.
Since we’re randomly talking about restroom experiences now, can I say that taking a deuce in the observation deck bathroom of the Empire State Building is very satisfying?
Where I work, we have two unisex toilets, normally. But there was one time when we had some managerial types visiting that the office administrator decided to label one “women” and the other “men”. I never did find out why they were special snowflakes, but the loos reverted back to unisex as soon as the visitors were gone.
California law now requires all single use bathrooms to be gender neutral. As usual it takes some time for all businesses to comply.
In Japan, some shops/restaurants/train stations have “Anybody can use” restrooms in addition to the separate woman and man facilities. Also, some places have a “women only” room and a “men or women room”.
The places where I have seen one unisex and one women’s bathrooms previously had one men’s and one women’s. From talking to my wife, the women’s still have at least two stalls so they would not qualify as single use bathrooms. In at least one of the restaurants the unisex bathroom has a urinal and a toilet but the divider has been removed.
Many years ago in the wilds of NJ, the company decided to do a big renovation of the offices, including the bathrooms.
The request was made to include a shower, for those who might want to ride their bicycles to work, or go running at lunchtime.
The request was refused because there wasn’t enough space to create a shower for women and another one for men. It wasn’t possible to have just one shower for both, even though it would be a lockable room and certainly wasn’t meant for sharing.
Only the german-speaking parts 
I used the “male” single seat restroom at a fast-food restaurant on a recent roadtrip. I was thinking about this thread at the time. Part of my logic was that the reason I needed to use the male restroom is that some woman had gone into the woman’s restroom and had been in their for an unusually long time–not only was I impatient and needed to get back on the road, but it occurred to me that if I were suffering from any of the reasons I might need to use a restroom for significantly longer than average, the last thing I would want to see as I came out was another woman who was obviously waiting and noticing my long occupation. It was politer, really, to leave her with her privacy.
Funny, I would think exactly the same way.
That, and I’m not sure I would want to enjoy the aftereffects of that woman’s prolonged tribulations…
Bolding mine. I’m completely with you with the exception of this one comment. Now, I expect that this would be an issue in very, very limited circumstances, and I’m assuming that is is NOT what you mean, but if I happened to be first in line in the bathroom with someone clearly needed that stall more than I did behind me, or I was changing in the stall and someone who required the handicapped stall asked me to hurry up so they could use it, I’d the last person to turn around and say, “What? There’s a stall on every other floor - you should just go find another one.” The point being, that if you’re disabled or have some other challenge, chances are you might not be able to make it to a different floor as easily as I could. But like I said, I’m guessing that’s not what you meant.
For the OP, the “right” answer in this case, is to do whatever makes you most comfortable. If you feel weird using the women’s toilet, wait. If you don’t care or really really have to pee, use it. You’re not putting anyone else out, so it really doesn’t matter.
You are required to wash your hands only if you’re an employee.
No, of course that’s not what I meant. I just meant that if some handicapped person happened to be in the building that day, odds are they’d be on a different floor, and wouldn’t have to use that restroom anyway.
I’ve NEVER seen a line in that particular bathroom. But of COURSE someone who claims to need the handicapped stall (whether or not it’s visually obvious that they need it) should get to cut to the front of the line and get first dibs on that stall in a situation where there’s a line.
And even though I’ve never seen someone who needed the handicapped stall on my floor, I don’t generally use it for ordinary restroom needs, as the other stalls are just fine for my needs there. But the handicapped stall is a lot nicer as a changing room.
I’m completely onboard with single-person restrooms being unisex, but…
My model airplane club has a porta-jon at our flying field. When we host a competitive event we pay to have another unit brought in and label it “Ladies Only”, and the ladies all seem to appreciate it.
Seems like a lot of the world is not quite so matter of fact about bodily functions.
When we were on a Caravan tour of Guatemala about 12 years ago we stopped at some convenience store to use the bathroom - single room stalls. One men’s, one women’s. After the men were done we women just split into two lines and used both.
As a man I would never use a women’s restroom, for much the same reason I wouldn’t spontaneously go wandering into rooms marked “employees only” - the restaurant is not my house and gets to make its own rules about where I can and can’t go. If a business wants to mark one of their bathrooms as being for use by people other than me, that’s their right.
This is entirely consistent with my casual willingness (and preference!) for using handicapped stalls - I’ve never seen one that was marked as a handicapped stall. They’re just bigger, and as a big dude the larger stalls seem made for me. (To date I’ve never seen a physically handicapped person in or near a bathroom - if I did, I would squeeze into one of the small stalls rather than risk inconveniencing them.)
Porta-johns are a toootally different thing, and kudos to your club for doing that! Obviously no one wants to have to touch more of a porta-john than is absolutely necessary. But it really, reeeaaaaally sucks to have to pee in one as a chick, since you have to sit down (they’re too high for my short self to hover (I never do that on a regular toilet, but I’d consider making an exception for porta-johns). I guess you could TRY to squat, but I can just imagine losing your balance and falling…).
The good portajohns have a urinal on the side, so guys don’t have to touch anything to avoid splattering on the seat…