We have a long bike trail running thru the greenbelt/parkway that bisects the metro, and all water fountains are working, as are the flush toilets in the neighboring bathrooms, every 3-4 miles - I don’t recall them not working. They only shut off when the fountain is out of order for some reason, but are eventually back on line. The fountains are used by dozens of people every day. I fill-up my bicycle water bottle from them all the time and I have lived to tell about it.
You got it, friend.
And yes it does seem like germs just jump on me. Self-preservation is my intent.
I’ve been social distancing for half my life. Way before COVID.
And, no I won’t be shaking your hand or hugging you.
Just how I roll. 
(I could explain a deeper reason why I’m a germaphobe, but that’s probably a hijack)
I like them. My grocery store and the Y have them. I am never out somewhere without my 7 oz bottle; must stay hydrated.
I use them to refill my bottle.
In elementary school, seems like when we lined up to use the fountain, there’d be one little shit who would plant his mouth directly on the water outlet. Grossed the shit out of me. I’d always let it run a few seconds before using hoping that the previous kid’s spittle would be flushed out. But why did they do this? Drink from the high point of the arc of water like a sensible chimpanzee.
Maybe environmental regulations on lead weren’t as stringent back then.
It’s amazing how much of a building’s systems go to shit when they are not used for while. Along with not maintaining the systems during the mothball cycle… is like a cabin/rv, you don’t just shut off the water, gas and electricity and walk away for the winter. You have to prep it for storage. We had the hot water lines chalk up because the suspended solids in the water fell out of solution from not circulating the water for the several months we were closed. The seals on the cast iron sewer pipe joints in the building dried out and when we opened back up shit leaked out every where it seemed like. The same sediment issue happened to the chiller water for the HVAC system too, lines, heat exchangers clogged up… buildings fall apart quite quickly when no one is there using them and doing maintenance work….
I generally need to run it a few seconds to see how high the arc is, so i can aim. Honestly, i figure those few seconds are good enough to flush off and random spittle or dust that might be in the faucet. I’m a huge fan of water bubblers.
Don’t water bubblers splash in your face and eyes, easily. Is that different than a regular water fountains?
Nope..nope..nope!
Last summer, I visited Bozeman, MT, where I went for grad school. I was walking around town, reliving memories, but it was a hot day, and I was getting thirsty. I went to three different places that I remembered having public drinking fountains, and all of them were disabled or removed.
Nope, just different terms for the same thing, at least on my regional dialect.
And in Portland:
Oh, I love a challenge.
Go on…
You know “Evian water”? Did you know that if you go to Evian, they just call it “eau”? And it’s free
I heard the term “soda fountain” when I was a kid. I was disappointed when I learned it wasn’t like a water fountain that you could just drink Coke straight from.
Only on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
But then you have to pay for the plane ticket, and they’ll make you dump out all the bottles you filled for free before you can fly home anyways.
I actually have carried bottled tap water home (from Banff, Canada) in my checked luggage.
It wasn’t tap water, but I’ve carried bottled water ( drinking and distilled) in checked luggage multiple times. It’s only carrying it through the TSA checkpoint that’s not alllowed.
I still see the old-fashioned ones occasionally in the city. In fact, there’s one a couple blocks from me right now! They also have a four spray-jet (or whatever it’s called) sprinkler there, too, that runs 24-7 during the summer.
I was joking regardless - in my experience, only the US cares about bottles of liquid (as well as making you remove shoes and belts during security checks); other countries have much saner rules.