Let’s suppose you’re a female and you enter a restroom that is very crowded, so you will be required to wait in line for a while before you can relieve yourself, which you urgently need to do.
I’m assuming that in such a case, there would be multiple lines formed, one in front of each stall, because if there was just one line it would be very easy for someone who had just walked in the restroom to cut in front of everybody else.
As you get in line, do you ask the people in front of you what they intend to do once they get to the toilet? If I were a woman, I think I would do this. It seems that this piece of information would be critical in your decision of which line to stand in, as moving your bowels typically requires far more time than urinating does.
Alternatively, if you were in line with the intention of moving your bowels, wouldn’t it be rude for you not to mention this fact to the women standing in line behind you so they could switch to a faster-moving line?
In the restrooms I’ve been in and had to wait for a stall for, there has been only one line. Women who try to cut in are told where the end of the line is. Typically, the public restrooms are long and narrow, and there is no room for multiple lines.
It’s interesting that in men’s rooms, I don’t recall ever seeing a single-line formation. But then again it’s very rare that a men’s room would be so crowded that there would be any line(s), as most guys are only in there for about a minute, not even bothering to wash their hands afterwards.
About the only time where a men’s room is that crowded is at the cinema, just after the movie ends. In these cases, multiple lines form at each urinal, and you have to try to guess which line will move the quickest.
Like all the other women who’ve responded, I’ve never seen multiple lines in a lady’s room. One line. First person in line takes first available stall. I have seen special passage granted to: very pregnant women; women with blood running down their leg (sorry if this is TMI, but, hey, you asked), and women with very small children who were doing “the pee-pee dance”. I have not ever seen any discussion going on of what will go on inside the stall, except, maybe someone saying to someone right behind them “why don’t you go first? I may be a while”.
In a crowded bar, you might get shouted encouragement from the women in line. “Pee like a bunny!” But you would never, ever assume that any need on your part (unless perhaps you were pregnant) was going to get you in any faster.
One line. You will be informed of your transgression should you attempt to cut.
Yep, one line. If the people in line are feeling merciful, an extreme need might get you ahead, but otherwise, nope.
Until bathroom designers realize they need to put in twice as many toilets in the women’s room as they do urinals in the men’s, this is going to be a problem.
Possible excptions to standing in line given to (in addition to what’s already been said):
*Someone who is obviously about ready to throw up all over the place
*Someone who is in a wheelchair will be let into the handicapped stall as soon as it’s available
*Someone who obviously should have used the bathroom two mintues ago.
The only discussion I hear are assorted messages intended to warn the next potential occupant of the stall, requests for toilet paper, or converstaions that started up before the trip to the bathroom and are just continuing on.
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I’ve never seen lines in men’s rooms, either, since men usually can go find another bathroom/go behind a tree/in a cup/whatever.
Except after sporting events and concerts. Then the bathrooms fill with hordes of men elbow to elbow slowly shuffling towards a big long trough with a drain at one end and water trickling out of holes in a pipe that runs the length of the far rim. It’s kinda surreal, and one time I imagined just a bit too vividly what the flow thru the main sewer pipes of the LA Staples Center must be like right after a Kings game.
I’m afraid I don’t follow the reasoning here. People know where they are in a line. How would a single line be any easier to break into than multiple lines?
I’ve seen lines in men’s room quite often. Never as long as nor as often as the women’s room lines but they happen. I suppose I see it most often when a movie just gets out. And we do the one line thing too. Although I suppose if you gotta poop and a urinal opens up you’ll have to let the person behind you go.
GaryT, there’s no room generally to break into a line. You Walk in the door, you’re at the end of the line. There is no room or reason to walk past the line…all available space is taking up by people leaving stalls, washing hands and leaving, and the few people waiting for someone else. And those people had better be minor children, cuz ther’e NO ROOM in a crowded bathroom for people not in the flow, so to speak.