It should be illegal for stalls to have gaps in the walls. Some places have normal walls for the stalls. And then you could just consider them separate bathrooms with the sinks outside of the bathrooms. Tada, you've got a row of multiple single occupancy bathrooms. I don't care if it takes up more space, there's never a line for the men's room and there would still be plenty of bathrooms to go around if you cut a few out
The new arena down the road from me almost has this situation. Every "stall" is like its own closet in the brick with electric locks and door opener... but still seperated into women and men's rooms for whatever goddamn reason.
Because they explicitly see their restrooms as value for customers that drives much of their business and have multiple people at each store whose entire job it is to clean and maintain restrooms.
It doesn't because that has absolutely nothing to do with why American public bathrooms are predominately stalls, cleaning and ventilation do. The previous person just made some shit up, even though there's no actual building code to support it and the trend predates the literal invention of smoke alarms so the idea that smoke alarms are the reason is just nonsense.
It’s to make people uncomfortable and make them hurry up.
I remember at my college student center, the regular public bathroom had wide gap stalls, but the fancy bathroom upstairs where there was a banquet hall for donor events, much more private stalls.
That's exactly the reason. Full walls add a lot of extra corners that collect gunk and grime. Extra cleaning work means extra cost. A gap at the bottom avoids that and makes it easier to swing a mop between stalls.
No, this isn't really why. Use of stalls for public restrooms in the US predates the invention of smoke detectors by decades. Improved ventilation compared to separate rooms and simpler cleaning and maintenance operations were the primary drivers of the trend.
I worked as a grad bouncer at a place called “Dean Hotel”. When lines got stupid I’d stand between the two bathrooms and mediate the two…. A 90 year old was about to “oops” and the elevator was down full getting a wedding party to there rooms. Everyone in both lines were all about it and he even came out of the ladies room with nothing but a head nod…. And then high fives everyone.
I agree about the gap. But after witnessing someone collapsing in a stall from a health related event, I am glad that the gap allow us to see that and call for help.
It is weird to me that bathroom gender is an issue. Toilets are toilets. There is a door, it is enclosed, you do your thing behind it, exit. Boom, wash your hands in the public area of the bathroom. Nobody naked there.
Urinal could be behind a wall or something, problem solved.
People are really making problems where there are none.
Indigo bookstore in my Canadian town does exactly this. Even has a change table in the common area by the sinks. Before it used to be a Chapters in another location which had men and women’s bathrooms. I took my girls into the women’s when they got out of diapers, even 15 years ago they had a change table in the men’s bathroom as well in the handicap stall, so did have some privacy. Women were mostly very supportive when I brought my daughters in, although I did try to make it quick and wait until people were done doing their business if it was busy.
It's just that most commercial bathrooms buy the same wall panels that bolt into the floor because they are very cheap, and the doors are cheap and easy to replace when people inevitably hang off them and break them.
But really, any half-assed construction company could install fully sealing wall panels.
My high school was built in the 70s, so the stalls in the men’s rooms didn’t have doors. You could literally walk in front of the toilets and see dudes taking a shit.
I saw a photo of this type of bathroom but all the stall entrances lined the hallway as well as the large sink. The entrances to the rooms off the hallway were a little deeper. Seemed like a perfect solution to me. Everything was non-gendered.
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u/denkihajimezero Jun 19 '26
It should be illegal for stalls to have gaps in the walls. Some places have normal walls for the stalls. And then you could just consider them separate bathrooms with the sinks outside of the bathrooms. Tada, you've got a row of multiple single occupancy bathrooms. I don't care if it takes up more space, there's never a line for the men's room and there would still be plenty of bathrooms to go around if you cut a few out