I’ve rarely seen a separate line * - the closest I’ve seen is one person clearly waiting separately for the handicapped stall , but that seems to be a matter of that particular person forming a separate “line” rather an “official” separate line of some sort.
This will never happen in the US - there was a plan about 20-30 years ago in NYC to put public toilets on the street and the accessible ones would be locked and keys provided to the disabled. Disability groups objected, because non-disabled people wouldn’t have to obtain a key in advance and because not every toilet would be wheelchair accessible. These and other objections are why there are only five locations with street toilets in NYC.
* possibly because I rarely attend events where everyone is going to try to use the restroom at the same time
In places where there is enough space, we build enormously more accessible stalls than proportional to the need for those stalls. That’s because it’s a problem if the guy in the wheelchair needs to roam around the building to find the stall his wheel chair fits in. Better he should be able to use every restroom.
But it also means that in the enormous majority of cases, there is no one who needs that stall in the restroom when able-bodied people show up. In places with few restrooms, like a small restaurant, there may only be accessible stalls.
Of course able-bodied people use them. If we locked them up, we’d have to replace a lot of those accessible stalls with regular stalls, to accommodate the majority of users. I think we are better off in a world with plenty of accessible toilets that are used by everyone than in a world with a smaller number of accessible toilets.
The horrible queue that can form at a show is a special case where there really isn’t enough capacity for anyone. Only the people who hop up immediately, perhaps before the break quite comes, don’t have to wait.
I’ve never seen two queues form. There’s rarely room for two queues to form. I agree that two queues would be a reasonable thing to do if there’s space, but … I really can’t think of a time when there was a long snaking queue for the loo and there could have been two lines.
I’m thinking the physical configuration of public restrooms must be very different where you live than where i do. We don’t lock the accessible stalls, we don’t have room for multiple queues, and i suspect we have a lot more accessible toilets than you have.
But if I’m at the end of a long queue and i need to pee, I’d be pretty annoyed if people left the accessible stall open, or spent a lot of time each time it turned over to check if there might be anyone anywhere in the line who needs it. That means everyone at the end of the line waits that much longer
Exactly. As I mentioned upthread, it’s a regressive step to move to a situation where accessible stalls are perceived as being for the exclusive use of disabled people, because it will have a tendency to limit the number of accessible stalls to the absolute minimum.
I am disabled. I’ve got the mobility aids and handicapped parking permit to prove it. I have a seriously hard time in a regular restroom stall.
I have never before heard of a handicapped stall that is restricted to only us gimps. I have never once even considered complaining when able bodied people use the disabled stall. I stand in the same line as everyone else and when I’m in front I wait the extra minute or two for the disabled stall to open. Yes, I do sometimes have to tell the person behind me to use the regular stall that just opened up, but nobody has ever seen me waiting and jumped into the handicapped stall in front of me.
I have seen other apparently disabled adults ask to cut the line because of urgent need but I’ve seen many more moms and children cut the line with or without permission.
So, to the OP. Go for it. Wash your hands with soap afterwards.
Wow. First of all, no one here has insulted you personally. The closest thing I can see to an insult is @Riemann 's post #89, which says: “Sorry, but this seems selfish on your part,” referring to your post telling able-bodied people not to use the disabled stalls even if they have an urgent need to use the bathroom. Plus your implication that presumably able-bodied people ahead of you in line were being selfish by using all available stalls instead of seeking you out and inviting you to go ahead of them (you wrote that it pissed you off.) So no, I would call even Riemann’s post a carefully-worded disagreement with your stated position, not a personal insult. And I can’t see anything else that even comes close.
Second, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone call someone cowardly on this board for saying they need to step away from a thread. It’s one thing if a poster who keeps getting asked for cites ignores those requests and continues making baseless arguments, but I’ve never seen anyone be called names for admitting a subject has become too emotional. So you’re imputing yet another form of name-calling that hasn’t happened, and there’s no reason to believe it will happen.
Third, since when does your choice not to participate in a thread confer an obligation on the rest of us to stop replying to your posts (the only way in which anyone has tagged you so far)? You’re not only accusing people of unkind behavior they haven’t engaged in, you’re now asking for special treatment-- the ability to have the last word in the argument you jumped into, just because you’ve decided you want out. That’s not how it works. You don’t have to come back to this thread; you don’t have to read any more of what we’ve written or write back, but you don’t get to tell the rest of us that we can’t engage with what you already wrote.
OK. Genuinely not sure how you misread me so badly - I wanted people discuss the topic; that does not require talking about me and my posts, surely. The topic is not about me, or shouldn’t be. I’m not sure what weird fucking lens you and a few others here are viewing my posts through.
I’m not going to address every single point in your post - you seem to genuinely think you’re not being hostile or aggressive at all, and there will be several people to back you up. I give up. You win at the internet today.