I think that the reason for that is that you’ve told the other driver “This is the acceptable place to park.” Like a safety in numbers thing. Maybe it’s the same for shitters.
While vacuuming it.
Being old and wise I always check a stall for toilet paper and cleanliness before using it. All things being equal, I’d choose the far away stall. But TP and hygine trump the leave a space rule.
Excellent choice of phrase. 
I suppose if I used a bathroom that had a number of stalls roughly equivalent to the number of parking spaces in an average Target parking lot, I might agree with you. Certainly, when I’m parking in one of the 5 spaces in front of say, a Caribou, I don’t particularly care whether I park next to someone else.
Exactly. Sometimes the only clean stall, or the only one with toilet paper, is the one next to an occupied stall.
The last three-stall bathroom I remember had the stalls in a corner; that is, one stall in the corner of the room, one next to that, and another next to that. So the first person (was it you, BwanaBob?) might have taken the corner stall for maximum privacy. So now the next guy comes in and he has the choice between stalls 2 and 3. 3 might be right next to a urinal; or maybe everyone coming into the bathroom can now see his feet under the partition. If he takes number 2 (sorry), he’s intruding on the precious privacy of Mr. Cornerstall, but he does get a one-stall buffer between himself and the bathroom at large.
That’s perhaps not the tradeoff we all would have taken, but it’s not so indefensible as the OP would like to believe.
Perhaps the stall farthest from the occupied stall was handicap-accessible and the defecator in question was leaving it open for someone who might need it.
Add me to the “who gives a rat’s ass” column.
It’s a public toilet, so get over it. What I object to is when contractors come to my house to do a job and decide that that’s when they need to relieve themselves of last night’s hard-boiled eggs, pickled herring and beer.
It’s nice if you can have an empty stall in between two people shitting, but if not, oh well. If you want to shit in privacy work from home.
I’m totally with you. I don’t want to crap next to someone else and hear all their grunting, etc…
My new Dyson “Animal” would clean up your ass hair too.
I don’t understand this myself. It’s like when you are using a urinal and someone chooses the one right next to yours, even though all of the others are free. It’s as if they do it on purpose to be rude.
I’m in the “Get over it” crowd. I read once many years ago that the most used urinals and toilets in public bathrooms were the ones furthest back. Ever since then it’s been my policy to just go to the first open position available and have at it. The only exception for me is if the first urinal is a kiddy urinal.
White people (brown) problems.
I’m surprised that the people with this hang up can take a shit in a public restroom in the first place. I thought people like that needed home field advantage to de-clench.
“Men” and “toilet etiquette” don’t belong in the same thread… unless we are making fun of women’s toilet etiquette.
Get over it. Stop trying to make up “rules” that aren’t.
Oh, and while we’re on this subject: Urinals and their flushing_
If you don’t flush, well I understand; saving water & energy.
If you do flush, you say politeness rules over saving water & energy, and so that’s a reasonable point. This is possibly the “gold standard” .
If you pre-flush only if it’s yellow- well, maybe you’re getting a trifle anal, but we’ll let you slide.
If you always pre-flush(even if clear) (and post-flush): OK, dude, that’s some pretty serious resources you are wasting. Not cool.
If you constantly flush over & over- STOP THAT! see a psych.
I’ve seen fully enclosed stalls in a few places, but it’s extremely rare. Most of the ones I’ve seen were in restaurants or bars, but I remember there was at least one airport, and I want to say it was Louisville.