I pit handicap stalls that open inward.

[Sicks_Ate]

@purplehorseshoe

Dafuq? I’ve never even *heard *of a bathroom having cubby holes behind the throne. Glory holes, maybe, but I’m not putting my purse there …

I would have thought that local and/or standardized building code would cover this sort of thing.

Oh, you said purse.

[An_Gadai]

@MeanOldLady

Juh? Are inward-swinging doors really that big of a deal for anyone who can just back up when the door opens? I get McGarry’s gripe, for once, but the rest of yous guys?

You’re obviously not obese. I’ve been in bathroom stalls where the door has all but touched the bowl when opening. Dancing around the bowl is always fun, especially in a situation where one is slightly intoxicated, the typical state I’m in when availing of public toilets.

[elmwood]

@tdn

Sure, but they’re wider, not longer.

Most that I’ve seen are both wider and longer. Many are at the end of a row of regular stalls, and are large enough to include their own sinks. Lemme’ see if I can illustrate:

+------+
|      |
|  ♿O(|
|      |
+/ +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+
|  / o(|
|  +---+

[Zsofia]

@alice_in_wonderland

I’ve been in a couple of stalls where I had to straddle the toilet to get out of the way of the door enough to let it close - not often, but it’s certainly happened. I mean, I have a WTF?? moment and straddle and get on with it, but I can certainly attest that some architects have designed the stall so tightly both in length and width that moving to the side to allow the door to close is not an option - either standing around, or on top of the toilet is the only way to shut it.

For the OP - yah, that’s ridiculous. Like really, really stupid.

Exactly - I’ve been in some stalls where I really do have to struggle to get the door closed, and I’m average in size.

[TriPolar]

@elmwood

Most that I’ve seen are both wider and longer. Many are at the end of a row of regular stalls, and are large enough to include their own sinks.

I’ve seen several large extended length ones. But not every one. Looks like** Ambi ** finally has a legitimate complaint. If you can’t get a wheel chair in and close the door, there’s not much point to it. It’s not like his other beefs are totally baseless, but this one is reasonable, lucid, and doesn’t involve any paranoid ranting.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@curlcoat

I was told that the hooks were removed because thieves would come into the bathroom and grab purses off of the hooks while the owner was, er, indisposed. Kinda hard to chase a purse snatcher with your jeans around your ankles!

I don’t wear jeans, or slacks/trousers/pants, other than panties. But I get your point.

However, if you set your purse or bag on the floor, then thieves can reach under the door and grab them. So I can see two solutions…install the hooks lower on the door (say, about a foot down) so that thieves can’t reach the bags, or start using the fold down shelves again. Those fold down shelves were great. Not only did the user have a good place to put her purse and coat, but if the lock was broken and the door swung inward, then the shelf would keep the damn door closed.

Also, I shouldn’t have to lift the door a bit in order to lock it. On some doors, the door and wall are slightly out of alignment, so that the lock protrusion won’t fit nicely into its little niche in the wall.

[zut]

@tdn

I brought this up in Pit rant several years ago. Several Dopers told me to use the little cubby holes behind the toilet. When I said that I’ve never seen one of those, several people told me to wake up and just look, because every single stall in the known universe has one.

From that point on I look every single time. I have never seen such a thing.

Do you mean this thread, where a couple people mention that fold-down shelves are used in some places, particularly in women’s restrooms?

Because that’s in no way similar to “every single stall in the known universe” having “little cubby holes behind the toilet.”

[tdn]

@zut

Do you mean this thread, where a couple people mention that fold-down shelves are used in some places, particularly in women’s restrooms?

Yes, that’s what I meant. The point still stands, though, that I’ve never seen a cubby hole nor a fold-down shelf. But I tend not to go into a lot of women’s restrooms.

[An_Gadai]

@Lynn_Bodoni

However, if you set your purse or bag on the floor, then thieves can reach under the door and grab them.

Is this a significant, genuine concern for you? Typically when I enter a cubicle and have a bag or a jacket I just need to find somewhere it won’t get soaked in piss. The thought has never occurred to me that someone could yoink your stuff while you’re doing your bizness.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

I think that having a thief reach under the door and grab my goodies is about as likely as having a thief reach over the door and grabbing the same. That is, I think it’s pretty unlikely. However, if I set my bag or cloak on the floor, I am concerned about how clean and dry the floor is, about 100% of the time. I’d rather have hooks put in the doors, because even back in the days when we had hooks, I’d never had a thief even attempt to grab my purse.

[Miller]

There’s a pizza place in Berkeley I go to sometimes that has a tiny little closet of a bathroom. And for some reason, they decided to install both a regular toilet and a urinal. The two fixtures are so close together that if you need to sit on the toilet, the lip of the urinal presses into your thigh.

[BrotherCadfael]

@An_Gadai

The thought has never occurred to me that someone could yoink your stuff while you’re doing your bizness.

Wasn’t that what Larry Craig was after?

[MeanOldLady]

@An_Gadai

IThe thought has never occurred to me that someone could yoink your stuff while you’re doing your bizness.

@BrotherCadfael

Wasn’t that what Larry Craig was after?

rimshot

I’ve never given thought to someone trying to ninja my stuff away while I was pissing either. If there are no hooks or shelves in the stall, I’ll just throw my jacket over the bathroom door, which makes it even *easier *for crooks to steal, rather than put my clothing on a public restroom floor. But at no point have I thought anyone was going to steal my sweater, and I’ve been in some pretty divey places.

[Ambivalid]

@TriPolar

Looks like** Ambi ** finally has a legitimate complaint.

Could you tell me what my illegitimate complaints have been? :dubious:

[Azeotrope]

If the hooks are missing it’s probably vandalism. At the store I used to work at there was a public ladies’ room and an employee only one, and the public one was always a total disaster. The hooks ripped off the door, the toilet paper holders broken open, the hand dryers and faucets trashed. Not to mention it wasn’t safe to go in without galoshes because everyone who used the place either hovered and missed badly, or let loose with a garden hose.

[MeanOldLady]

@Ambivalid

Could you tell me what my illegitimate complaints have been? :dubious:

lol

[lorene]

@Rhythmdvl

Seriously, though, you put a heck of a lot of effort advocating for handicap issues. Not only here, but to businesses’ management and the occasional person you meet (often, it seems, in a parking lot). Between posting here, writing there, and some other verb I can’t think of in some other place that would make this list nice and rounded, you put a lot of time and effort into the field.

I really don’t remember much else about you, so forgive if this has been done before or it’s redundant with what you already do.

This is a fabulous suggestion. I had a colleague in a previous job who is a wheelchair user and has been since childhood. One time, he was travelling and noticed how insufficient his hotel’s evacuation plan was for someone in a wheelchair. From that thought, he built an enormous career ($$$) as a consultant to all kinds of buildings, arenas, etc on universal design and safety for individuals with disabilities.

[Ambivalid]

@Rhythmdvl

I’m sorry to hijack your 6,468 thread about an injustice.

Injustice?? Dial it down a notch please. Nowhere in my OP did I make any claims about ‘injustice’. Please don’t conflate things. I am simply ranting about a stupid and thoughtless mistake with the design of many handicap-stall doors. I dealt with the matter just yesterday so I am venting here. It doesn’t mean I am not also taking steps to resolve the issue when and where I encounter it.

[Rhythmdvl]

Way to miss the point there.

[Ambivalid]

@Rhythmdvl

Way to miss the point there.

Try me again then.