# Public "toilets" - you have got to be kidding! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585 "2010-02-26T23:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/41 "2010-02-27T20:49:28Z")
I can’t agree. If someone pisses in a public place, they should be charged with the crime they’re committing. We wouldn’t say, “Ah, well, people are going to steal anyway, so we might as well switch off the alarms”. It’s gross and unsanitary. It also gives a licence to produce the penis in public as well - I’ve heard of men getting off charges for flashing by saying they were just peeing. (And yes, I have, once in my far-off misspent youth, had to pee in public in a town. I was ashamed of myself at the time, and I wouldn’t do it again, urinal or no.) ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/42 "2010-02-27T21:08:27Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > I can’t agree. If someone pisses in a public place, they should be charged with the crime they’re committing. We wouldn’t say, “Ah, well, people are going to steal anyway, so we might as well switch off the alarms”. It’s gross and unsanitary. It also gives a licence to produce the penis in public as well - I’ve heard of men getting off charges for flashing by saying they were just peeing. (And yes, I have, once in my far-off misspent youth, had to pee in public in a town. I was ashamed of myself at the time, and I wouldn’t do it again, urinal or no.) Don’t get all hysterical, now. I don’t think that these pseudo-public urinals are supposed to oppress anybody. For various anatomical and cultural reasons, men can, and do, piss standing up in relative privacy by simply turning their backs. This no doubt leads to a lot of discrete pissing where people don’t want pissing to occur. Public restrooms like this are cheap, easy to construct and allow large volumes of men to piss into objects designed for it instead of streets, walls, corners, shrubbery, etc. I submit that these bathrooms have less to do with letting men whip out their cocks willy-nilly, pee everywhere, and commit crimes, and more to do with public sanitation. Also: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/43 "2010-02-27T21:34:25Z")
Grow up. I’m hardly hysterical. I just think that now that we’ve moved on from living in caves, and we have a lot of people in a confined amount of space (i.e. towns), men should also move on from thinking that it’s OK to pee whenever and wherever. The urinals they put up at weekends in the West End don’t provide privacy (in fact they are put on in main streets, well-lit areas, and by that measure actually make it more visible), and do encourage the idea that men are some sort of delicate creatures who can’t hold their juice and must be pandered to. If we’re out, we’re not children. We can all manage to find a toilet or hold it till we get home. I fully agree with you that these are designed to prevent public sanitation problems, but I submit that the solution is cheaper and easier: stop allowing adult men to behave like dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/44 "2010-02-27T23:57:04Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > If someone pisses in a public place, they should be charged with the crime they’re committing. Yes, I agree that if somebody’s pissing at random in public with insufficient consideration for modesty and decorum, they’re committing a crime and should be charged with it. However, I consider that providing street urinals is a means of **preventing** and **avoiding** that crime, not a means of enabling it. Street urinals, like other forms of public restrooms, are designed to be **alternatives** to immodest and unsanitary public urination. > [@Teacake](#): > > It’s gross and unsanitary. The “gross” part has to be a matter of personal opinion, of course. Personally, I don’t find it any more “gross” to see the fully clothed back of a man standing in a street urinal than to see the fully clothed back of a man entering a door marked “MEN”. In both cases, I know perfectly well why he’s in there, and I’m perfectly well able to ignore it. If I can see a guy’s privates while he’s standing in a street urinal, on the other hand, then either the urinal is badly designed and should be replaced with something that provides more privacy, or he’s deliberately using the urinal incorrectly in order to indecently expose himself, in which case I’d feel no compunction about calling a cop. Musing on how we might discourage the latter phenomenon, I came up with the idea of a medium-tech urinal that uses a sensor to check the user’s foot placement to detect whether he’s standing too far back from the niche and allowing his privates to be exposed. We could have a nice loud recording in a prissy grandmotherly voice saying something like _“You are standing too far back to use the urinal correctly; please step further forward into the niche. If you do not understand how to use the urinal correctly, please press the red button for help.”_ Passersby would snicker at the doofus who couldn’t figure out how to use a urinal, and the resulting embarrassment would discourage flashers (and also enlighten the occasional clueless innocent who was accidentally misplacing himself instead of deliberately exposing himself). If a more shameless flasher kept trying to stand too far back so as to let his privates be seen, the repetition of the recording would attract the attention of bystanders and eventually of the police. There, how’s that for a solution? As for the “unsanitary” part, I agree that restroom facilities should always have some form of hand cleansing available, since (as [**Cecil** has explained](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1043/why-are-men-supposed-to-wash-their-hands-after-urination)) handling one’s genitals inevitably gets coliform bacteria on one’s hands, no matter how clean you think your underwear is. It’s probably unworkable to put sinks with running water and soap in street urinals, but having hand-sanitizer dispensers in the urinal niches should be adequate. And, of course, there’s nothing unsanitary about peeing in the urinals themselves, as there is about peeing on a wall or in a phone booth or down a storm drain, etc. The urine is either piped right into the sewage system or stored until the urinal service empties and cleans it. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/45 "2010-02-28T00:09:27Z")
That’s nothing. The army has been using [piss tubes](http://www.flickr.com/photos/87788690@N00/191846328) since Vietnam. Just a pipe sticking out of the ground. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/46 "2010-02-28T00:28:27Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > Grow up. I’m hardly hysterical. I just think that now that we’ve moved on from living in caves, and we have a lot of people in a confined amount of space (i.e. towns), men should also move on from thinking that it’s OK to pee whenever and wherever. The urinals they put up at weekends in the West End don’t provide privacy (in fact they are put on in main streets, well-lit areas, and by that measure actually make it more visible), and do encourage the idea that men are some sort of delicate creatures who can’t hold their juice and must be pandered to. If we’re out, we’re not children. We can all manage to find a toilet or hold it till we get home. I fully agree with you that these are designed to prevent public sanitation problems, but I submit that the solution is cheaper and easier: stop allowing adult men to behave like dogs. That’s not it. The idea is that towns do what they can, and for anatomical reasons they can do more for men than for women. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/47 "2010-02-28T03:00:21Z")
Hey, anything that removes more people from the real restrooms and portapotties and leaves more room for me, and keeps the half of the population with potential aiming problems out of the portapotties completely, is okay by me. (Not to say there aren’t females with these same aiming problems, evidently.) It sure seems like they could lengthen the buttgate, though. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/48 "2010-02-28T03:14:19Z")
> [@arseNal](#): > > Heheh, ever go to a swanky/pretentious bar/club only to see one of these in the bathroom? > > [http://www.gentworks.co.uk/images/P/VR%20Trough%20L.jpg](http://www.gentworks.co.uk/images/P/VR%20Trough%20L.jpg) IIRC Fenway Park in Boston has a trough. The one-way mirror thing looks cool. I’d want to try it just to see how the _feeling_ of people being able to look in (even though they can’t). FWIW, I’d have no problem peeing in the thing the OP linked. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/49 "2010-02-28T03:48:10Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > It sure seems like they could lengthen the buttgate, though. Buttgates are an unwarranted extravagance. I see no reason to have then at all. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/50 "2010-02-28T04:17:47Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > Buttgates are an unwarranted extravagance. I see no reason to have then at all. If it’s a 5 alarm chili festival you’d understand. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/51 "2010-02-28T04:24:44Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If it’s a 5 alarm chili festival you’d understand. ? Street urinal buttgates are not airtight seals or anything like it (see the picture in the OP), so I don’t see how they’d be any more useful during a 5-alarm chili festival than in any other circumstances. I agree that the buttgates seem to be unnecessary; you can get enough privacy without them, and they’re just one more moving part to break and potentially germy surface to touch. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/52 "2010-02-28T04:30:34Z")
Thankfully I can’t find it on the internets, but I’ve used a urinal in Singapore that was a giant one way mirror (I’m assuming it was one way and not a voyeur’s nirvana). ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/53 "2010-02-28T04:55:06Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > ? Street urinal buttgates are not airtight seals or anything like it (see the picture in the OP), so I don’t see how they’d be any more useful during a 5-alarm chili festival than in any other circumstances. > > I agree that the buttgates seem to be unnecessary; you can get enough privacy without them, and they’re just one more moving part to break and potentially germy surface to touch. Ah, you’re not up to speed on the current technology of butt-gates. The newest ones have a precise parabolic surface molded into them to reflect both sound and any gluteus vortices back to the end user. Picture a 5-alarm chili festival and men wearing thongs. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/54 "2010-02-28T05:13:29Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > As you might guess, Wikipedia has an article on [urinals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urinal_%28restroom%29). It includes a photo of a portable one used in the Netherlands and a older one from Paris. That’s what I used in Leiden. It was quite convenient. But I used it at night when everyone was pub crawling. I don’t think I would do that in the day time. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/55 "2010-02-28T05:31:20Z")
What’s the european thing about washroom attendents? You walk in, do your thing, and wash your hands-you look around for a towel, and some old hag hands you one. For this you have to pay about $0.75 Why do they have these people anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/56 "2010-02-28T05:38:31Z")
Stops an awfully lot of funny business (you know what I mean). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/57 "2010-02-28T05:59:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Ah, you’re not up to speed on the current technology of butt-gates. The newest ones have a precise parabolic surface molded into them to reflect both sound and any gluteus vortices back to the end user. > > Picture a 5-alarm chili festival and men wearing thongs. You know **Magiver** , when _ **I** _ make the choice to hang out on the Dope late on a Saturday night, at least I try to be sober. 😛 (Although if you can still correctly spell “gluteus vortices” I suppose you can’t really be all that wasted.) ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/58 "2010-02-28T07:20:22Z")
Those urinals in the OP are no big deal. Us guys are pigs and we’ll wizz anywhere. Personally I’d way prefer using one of those then a regular Portapotty (having to wizz on a mountain of shit! Bleech!) Back in the late 80s I traveled cross country here in the USA and the only weird bathroom I came across was a rest stop in Texas. The toilets were arranged same as the urinals, IOW they were just all in a row with no individual booths around them! Don’t think I could wipe my ass in front of strangers (or friends for that matter!) ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/59 "2010-02-28T08:43:20Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > I can’t agree. If someone pisses in a public place, they should be charged with the crime they’re committing. The actual crimes involve exposing the penis to women, and leaving urine in a place where it won’t disappear easily. Neither of these two criteria are fulfilled. > [@Teacake](#): > > We can all manage to find a toilet or hold it till we get home. I fully agree with you that these are designed to prevent public sanitation problems, but I submit that the solution is cheaper and easier: stop allowing adult men to behave like dogs. When you have to piss, you have to piss. I have trouble imagining these things being put up where there isn’t an otherwise lack of adequate public facilities. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585/60 "2010-02-28T12:27:18Z")
To clarify, my comments about gross and unsanitary, and indeed to “the crime they’re committing”, referred to the practice of pissing in the street, not to pissing in a urinal. And I don’t agree that “when you have to piss, you have to piss” is a good excuse. If women can hold it (because they have to), why shouldn’t men have to? We all have to do things we might rather not, because we choose to live in cities; we have to walk on the pavement instead of in the road, we have to wear clothes all the time, we have to sleep inside our houses unless we want to be moved on, etc. These are the trappings of civilisation the way we’ve built it. Peeing in a decent receptacle in a reasonable place (i.e. neither in an alleyway nor at a urinal set up in the main street) should be part of this. Apart from anything else, with the peeing against walls, urine is very bad for buildings; they have problems with it rotting the fabric, even of certain quite nice buildings like the [National Gallery](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2191727.stm) (article also contains pictures of one of the types of urinal they have up in London, though this one provides more privacy than the ones I’ve seen). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-toilets-you-have-got-to-be-kidding/530585.md?page=4)