There is also a non-zero percentage of MEN (like myself) who would feel all of the above also around women. I have no intention of ever using a unisex bathroom that is meant for more than one person at a time.
On the other hand, I don’t think it’s sexist if women’s bathrooms are a bit larger than those for men. And I get the need for “fainting couches”; that time of the month can be a bitch. I know in some stadiums I’ve been to instead of urinals there is just a long trough where every guy lines up and lets it fly. Something like that is theoretically possible in female bathrooms, just with a bench to sit on over the trough. It would take a lot less space, though there would be the lack of privacy to get used to, because it’s nothing like using a toilet stall.
Or, he could say “Your body is your problem. Bring your own tampons.” Right?
Urinals? Nanny-state crap. In my day we pissed in a trough between innings and got some real throughput out of the piss line.
When the local stadium has remodeled, they apparently had to take out the troughs in the men’s room as not being up to current code.
Actually, no. The 2 to 1 ratio is a real thing, and legally mandated in NY.
The “fainting couch”, by the way, is mostly for giving breastfeeding moms a comfortable and private place to do so outside of the bathroom itself. Nowadays they’re much rarer, but nowadays fewer women have an issue with breastfeeding in public.
It also has a couple other uses, but that’s the main one.
See this photo of ancient Roman public toilets. Just about like that; not much privacy there, and it wasn’t expected.
“Fainting couches”, as you phrased it, would most likely be used by women who don’t wish to breastfeed in open public, for any number of reasons.
ETA: Should have finished the thread first. Oh, well.
BTW, is it true that men are more likely to line up at each individual stall or urinal, whereas (and I never noticed this until this cliche was pointed out) women form a single line and when they get to the front, use the first open stall?
when I was a kid in school that’s the way it was done. Outside of school, I’ve never seen it done that way, it’s always “take the first open spot” method of moving through the line, occasionally giving way to a dad with a child or someone in a wheelchair if the open spot is the handicap stall (which frequently is the stall with the baby changing station)
IME, the men’s room (when there is a line) is “next in line take the first open spot”.
I seem to have a vague, likely substance-addled recollection from my misspent youth of such a system at concerts such as the Aragon Brawlroom, where folk would form lines at every urinal (and sink!) Or maybe at sporting events with the troughs.
But for the past 30 years, I have NEVER seen anything other than one line, next up takes the next open space. Only kicker is that some guys seem not to want to piss into a stool in such circumstances. So if the line is essentially waiting for the pissers, you can bypass it an use an empty stall.
Throughput would go down with the elimination of urinals. Urinals are quicker then stalls having no doors or seats to move and allow faster turnaround to the next person. Urinals can also fit in spaces where stalls can not,] increasing stations beyond just the space savings Perhaps some of this can be mitigated with port-a-john style stalls which includes a small urinal on the wall next to the seat, but that takes up more room. Also there is some benefit to a express lane in terms of throughput.
Short answer if you want to speed up throughput for everyone and lessen wait time for everyone in a place where it is common to wait, allow those who can use a alternate means to pee to have that option, get them out of the stall line and open of those spots for those who need them. The question becomes the optimum ratio.
As for the sexist part, they do have female urinals which men can easily use also, and should provide disposable funnels to make it easier. To make it equatable as you state, but not penalize anyone, this would have to be a option, though women would most likely still take longer at the urinal stations, but it’s a big leap culturally as you say.
That’s not a decision up to the maintenance crew, that’s something for the owner to decide. Keeping the the machines stocked is just as much his job as cleaning the window on the front door.
How much do those machines get used, anyway? I’ve never used one but I just don’t get out much. I know the bags and containers in the stalls, for disposal, get used pretty regular.
Keep in mind how some women dress - there are women’s fashions that bare a lot of skin, use thin fabrics, and so forth so the attire is simply less insulating than then suits the men are wearing. Of course there will be a debate about the thermostat in that circumstance!
I should add that as a maintenance person, urinals also have more plumbing issues than toilets.
Its because urinals, especially modern ones, use much less water than toilets and dont get me started on the enviro friendly “waterless” ones. The salts in the urine can build up pretty quickly along with the tobacco, gum, and whatever gets tossed into a urinal. This all means they clog quickly and its difficult to clean out the plumbing. Plumbers often charge twice as much to fix urinals (especially at bars) as they do toilets.
Throughput is even faster at the trough urinals, because when busy, more men can use it at the same time – less space used by dividing walls & spacing. Bashfulness get overridden by a bulging bladder.
The major reason for those is to reduce cleaning costs. People tend to be messy in public toilets. Men often pee without raising the seat, and leave some drops on the seat. And they are especially hesitant to touch the seat to raise it in a public toilet. The wall urinal avoids that problem.
It’s not so much a plumbing issue, as the fact that people insist on throwing garbage in there. Especially cigarette butts*. Having a handy garbage recepticle next to each urinal helps a lot.
*One guy who owns 3 bars said that while the tavern owners association had fought the prohibition on smoking indoors in bars, in fact the drop in bar attendance from smokers never really happened for long, but reduced cleaning time & plumbing calls in his restrooms was a nice, unexpected cost decrease.
Is it only the outflow that’s a maintenance hassle with urinals? The mechanism of a toilet is pretty damn simple, and when it does need work all the moving parts are easy to get to.[sup]*[/sup] I’m not sure how urinals know how to stop the water after a flush, or how tough they are to fix when they don’t.
- Actually, toilets in commercial establishments often don’t have the same tank setup that’s on home toilets.
I assume you’re not familiar urinals, or how they are use, if you believe that by removing them, overall throughput (number of users per hour?) would increase in heavily used (just before lunch, or at the end of the day time frames) bathrooms/washrooms/water closets/little pirates room.
Yes, but rather than the current paradigm where you have to design for maximum male throughput and female throughput separately, architects would only have total throughput to consider. If a venue has a crowd that’s sometimes predominantly female, or male, it’s wasting space to have gendered facilities that aren’t being optimally used. Unisex bathrooms mean you’re always using all the space you’ve got.
Some women are hesitant to sit on public toilet seats, and “hover”. :rolleyes: (C’mon, if you knew what lives in your nose and mouth, you wouldn’t be squeamish about a visibly clean toilet seat.) How do I know this? They usually don’t clean up after themselves. :mad:
My mother grew up in an era when kids were told that you could get VD from toilet seats, and to this day covers hers before sitting on it.