Poll of your thoughts/opinions on multi-stalled public restrooms

[Anonymous Axolotl]

13 hours ago, Chihiro said:

I am not sure what kind of urinals you are talking about. Mens urinals? Womens?

I've never heard of a women's urinal before, so I was talking about mens. I think urinals, in general, are pretty gross due to how "open" they are, but I feel like as long as they have their own section in a restroom, they won't cause any harm.

 

13 hours ago, Chihiro said:

And I have used men's toilet when women's had huge line and no men were inside mens multistall.... there was such a strong stench coming from where urinals were located, I dont think men flush urinals at all. Which brings me to another reason why I not okay with men nd women sharing toilets..... MENS TOILETS ARE GROSS (completely forgot about this point) 

 

13 hours ago, Chihiro said:

The few times I had to use men's or unisex toilet...... pee was all over the toilet majority of times (I have seen pee on womens only toilet often but most times it was just drops- something that can be cleaned by using the toilet paper so I dont mind). Oh, btw, this isnt country specific problem. I have lived and traveled in many countries- developed and developing and this has been the problem everywhere and have used unisex in both developed and developing countries. Until society teaches men to be clean, this is going to be a persistent problem.

Due to my health requiring me to use restrooms anywhere from once every couple hours up to three and sometimes four times an hour, I've used plenty of restrooms, including gender-neutral single-stalled restrooms, and sometimes men's restrooms. The only times they've smelled bad have either been due to a really stinky #2 or one of those horrible air "fresheners" that smells like chemicals. I think cleanliness/smell in a restroom has a lot more factors than it just being a "women's," "men's," or "gender-neutral" restrooms. Not very long ago I used a multi-stalled women's restroom at a Macy's store and it was one of the most atrocious restrooms I've ever been in—much worse than any public highway rest stop restroom. And this was at a supposedly "high end" store, yet the floor was covered in about one centimeter of water, one toilet was actively leaking, one was clogged, there was what appeared to be pee on the other seats, and what appeared to be dried soap on the counter/smeared on some of the mirrors. In addition to those issues, both paper towel dispensers were jammed and only one of four sinks worked—and it was very finicky at that.

 

I don't think it's a completely universal problem for men's and gender-neutral restrooms, and perhaps you've only happened to run into bad luck with men's and gender-neutral restrooms. Although I've only used restrooms in three countries, I haven't noticed any "pattern" to cleanliness or not. I do agree the people in general need to be taught more respect and how to clean up after themselves. I've been in a women's restroom with period blood wiped on the stall walls, but again, that's a rare case. I also have to wonder if, universally, women's restrooms are cleaned more frequently than mens. I've talked to the janitor at my mother's work before and they've said that they have to clean the women's restroom more often than the men's. I'm not sure if that means the women using the restroom are messier, women's restrooms get more use than men's and thus need more frequent cleaning, or some other factor. I have used both the men's and women's restrooms at my mom's work and both seem to be equally clean on average. (In fact, the men's is actually in better shape while the women's has multiple broken things: a door with a makeshift lock and a non-functioning soap dispenser.)

 

13 hours ago, Chihiro said:

(Oh I am also worried that men might use urinals as an excuse to flash and might pretend like it was an accident.... we all know men love showing their dicks, not all but its kind of become a stereotype because of how often it happens).

If the urinals are in a separate section of the restroom and you can't see them unless you go through an additional door or around another corner/dogleg and enter another room within the restroom after already entering the general/main area of the restroom, I don't see how this would be a problem. Unless the man unzips their pants and pulls out their dick as they are actively walking into the general area of the restroom from a public area. Maybe some do that, but I honestly feel like that'd only make things more difficult to get to the urinal since they'd have to hold onto their pants and privates as they walk.

 

6 hours ago, griffinej5 said:

The men got to have the annoying experience women always have of having to stand in line.

To add onto that, here's an excerpt from an article from The Guardian:

"Suppose that we have a male and a female multi-stall toilet with six stalls each. We have 150 males and 150 females answering the call of nature over a one-hour period. Then the average waiting time for men is roughly 27sec and for women roughly 7min 40sec. [...] If we make them gender-neutral, then the average waiting time will go to 36 seconds – a small increase for men but a substantial decrease for women."

Even if men have to spend more time in a line, nine additional seconds on average won't be anything like what women have to wait in a women's only restroom.

 

[griffinej5]

13 minutes ago, Anonymous Axolotl said:

I've never heard of a women's urinal before, so I was talking about mens. I think urinals, in general, are pretty gross due to how "open" they are, but I feel like as long as they have their own section in a restroom, they won't cause any harm.

 

 

Due to my health requiring me to use restrooms anywhere from once every couple hours up to three and sometimes four times an hour, I've used plenty of restrooms, including gender-neutral single-stalled restrooms, and sometimes men's restrooms. The only times they've smelled bad have either been due to a really stinky #2 or one of those horrible air "fresheners" that smells like chemicals. I think cleanliness/smell in a restroom has a lot more factors than it just being a "women's," "men's," or "gender-neutral" restrooms. Not very long ago I used a multi-stalled women's restroom at a Macy's store and it was one of the most atrocious restrooms I've ever been in—much worse than any public highway rest stop restroom. And this was at a supposedly "high end" store, yet the floor was covered in about one centimeter of water, one toilet was actively leaking, one was clogged, there was what appeared to be pee on the other seats, and what appeared to be dried soap on the counter/smeared on some of the mirrors. In addition to those issues, both paper towel dispensers were jammed and only one of four sinks worked—and it was very finicky at that.

 

I don't think it's a completely universal problem for men's and gender-neutral restrooms, and perhaps you've only happened to run into bad luck with men's and gender-neutral restrooms. Although I've only used restrooms in three countries, I haven't noticed any "pattern" to cleanliness or not. I do agree the people in general need to be taught more respect and how to clean up after themselves. I've been in a women's restroom with period blood wiped on the stall walls, but again, that's a rare case. I also have to wonder if, universally, women's restrooms are cleaned more frequently than mens. I've talked to the janitor at my mother's work before and they've said that they have to clean the women's restroom more often than the men's. I'm not sure if that means the women using the restroom are messier, women's restrooms get more use than men's and thus need more frequent cleaning, or some other factor. I have used both the men's and women's restrooms at my mom's work and both seem to be equally clean on average. (In fact, the men's is actually in better shape while the women's has multiple broken things: a door with a makeshift lock and a non-functioning soap dispenser.)

 

 

I’ve occasionally walked into men’s rooms when it was crowded, or the women’s was out of order. It seems usually to be that the establishment generally doesn’t keep things clean, and not a men or women issue. Yesterday, I took a drive out to see a live show of a podcast, and stopped in a gas station on the way home. The person before me had peed all over the seat. I occasionally debate the purchase of one of those stand to pee funnel things, and this person has gotten one into my amazon cart. 

[Anonymous Axolotl]

6 minutes ago, griffinej5 said:

I’ve occasionally walked into men’s rooms when it was crowded, or the women’s was out of order. It seems usually to be that the establishment generally doesn’t keep things clean, and not a men or women issue. Yesterday, I took a drive out to see a live show of a podcast, and stopped in a gas station on the way home. The person before me had peed all over the seat. I occasionally debate the purchase of one of those stand to pee funnel things, and this person has gotten one into my amazon cart. 

Ew, that's nasty. At least it sounds like you now have a solution. I've seen those things before and feel like they'd be useful for camping, but I've never thought of using them in the context of a regular restroom.

[griffinej5]

9 minutes ago, Anonymous Axolotl said:

Ew, that's nasty. At least it sounds like you now have a solution. I've seen those things before and feel like they'd be useful for camping, but I've never thought of using them in the context of a regular restroom.

I do not camp, except one time I stayed in a Super 8, and in the middle of the night, water started pouring into my room from upstairs. 

I work a lot in people’s homes. One time I worked in a home with bathrooms so nasty,  I usually went to the public bathroom at the park nearby before to avoid it. I had another one once I knew would be nasty, so I tried to avoid it. One time I got desperate, so I used their bathroom. I never made the mistake again. 

[eorion]

1) I feel relatively safe, but have to misgender myself, and i don't like them for that reason and a few others.
2) They're incredibly important, for so many reasons, such as anxiety (may need friends to go with), young people who need family with them, disabled people who's carer's go with them and are a different gender, and for all trans people's safety.
3) They're not common, there's like,,, 2 gender neutral toilets near eachother at most that i know of.
4) I use them whenever I need to pee and am not at home.
4) I feel most comfortable in neutral bathrooms.

[Tree snake]

I actually didn't know binary bathrooms existed until I was 25. The ones at my school were gender neutral singles, same with the mall and all the stores I visited.

I had only seen binary restrooms in movies but never in real life. My only experience with gender separated rooms were the changing room in school and clothestores. 

[DuranDuranfan]

Ooh! SOAPBOX ALERT!! 

 

First, a backstory. Six years ago when my husband and I were on our way back home from our honeymoon, I had to use the bathroom at the bus terminal. I had no idea the toilet seat was broken in the stall I was in. It was just sitting on top of the rim but it wasn’t connected, so when I got up, I just about lost my balance and fell off the toilet. Needless to say, I was not happy. So I remembered something I had seen on The L Word, and researched how to pee standing up as a cis female. 

 

Now I can proudly say that I can pee standing up, and even through the fly on my pants. That was the final challenge in my journey of learning. Bonus points because it was a pair of overalls!

 

If there are gender neutral bathrooms available where I live, I haven’t found them. The only ones close to being neutral are the single bathrooms for people with disabilities. And I’d feel bad having to use them and causing a person with a disability to wait because some physical disabilities require the person to go right away when they feel the need, or they’ll have an accident. I don’t want that to happen to them. 

 

I wish I was brave enough to duck into the Men’s bathroom just so I could skip the lineup. But I have this ingrained notion that it’s verboten ground. So in order for that to happen, I’d need liquid courage(aka VODKA! I love my vodka). Same with using a urinal. Again, lots of liquid courage. And now I remember why I have that notion of the Men’s bathroom being verboten. I was dared one time in elementary school(by a boy), to go into the boys bathroom. Since I was curious to see whether it looked the same as the girls bathroom, I did. I was caught by a teacher as I came back out, and I got scolded for it. Since the boy who dared me was nowhere around, I couldn’t say to this teacher that he dared me. I was afraid I wouldn’t be believed.

 

Anyway, in the woman’s bathroom I always need to be in a stall that’s a few stalls away from one in use. I have this fear that someone will look down and notice my feet pointing towards the toilet. My stance is the pretty much the same as a man when peeing standing up. Feet spread shoulder width or a little more. So I like the stall designs at the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Mall. They’re like little rooms with actual doors. 🤗

 

Perhaps if there was the option of gender neutral bathrooms it would eliminate(so to speak), these fears and ingrained notions. It would help a lot. 

 

As for cleanliness, or lack thereof, I’d say it’s equal. I’ve worked custodial jobs where cleaning the bathrooms was part of the job, and I’ve seen my fair share of piss on toilet seats, unflushed urinals(because some are made to hold water like a conventional toilet), toilet paper left wily-nily on the floor, piss on the floor, shit on the floor(yes really!), needles flushed down the toilet(I used a snake and pulled one out), other drug paraphernalia left behind, spit, blood, and I think I even found an open condom wrapper. So yeah, equally messy!

 

Also, in places where pay toilets existed, I heard that it was the women who got charged and NOT the men! WTF?! Which leads me to an incident that really pissed me off. My husband and I were walking back to the transit terminal after watching a yearly fireworks display show and I had to use the bathroom. We go into a Subway restaurant and I ask for the key to the bathroom. I got told I had to buy something. But before I asked for key, I saw that the guy before me had been given the key, no questions asked. So I was like “Excuse me?! You just gave that guy before me the key for the men’s bathroom without saying anything, and yet you’re saying I have to buy something before I get the key to the women’s bathroom?! This is gender based discrimination! No! I will not pay, because this is bullshit! And if you don’t give me the key, there will be hell to pay!” They relented. I guess they didn’t want a lawsuit on their hands. If they had continued to deny me, there probably wouldn’t have been a lawsuit but it definitely would’ve gone to the Human Rights Tribunal for sure. 

 

*mic drop*

[DragonSpirit]

I'm weird. Most public bathrooms I don't have a problem using, but I never use school bathrooms. I haven't since fourth grade. They're not unsafe or anything; I have no reason. I just don't use them. I can go 10 hours without peeing, which is not normal, but whatever.

[Salmiakki]

On 8/20/2019 at 2:00 PM, DragonSpirit said:

I can go 10 hours without peeing, which is not normal, but whatever.

Maybe you just don't drink enough. 

[DragonSpirit]

 

12 hours ago, Salmiakki said:

Maybe you just don't drink enough. 

Maybe

[Larkaloke]

I've never seen a multi-stalled gender-neutral restroom, so I have to assume they don't exist where I live - but I don't know for sure.

 

I greatly prefer using the single room neutral restrooms. If they are available, I will do so. I'd rather have neutral multi-stalled ones, too. However, as generally in public places around here the only option is the multi-stalled binary ones, that's what I usually use. I don't like it, and I always feel weird about whichever one I go into (typically the women's, since I figure I'm less likely to get yelled at for that), but not unsafe.

[uniQChick]

On 6/30/2019 at 12:28 AM, Chihiro said:

... Womens urinals are still in use in parts of asia and I didnt like using them. Its weird to see asses hanging out ugh...

Never seen women urinals that are wall-mounted and used in a half-squat position… (I am not talking about ceramic pan at floor level used in a full squat position, as this is regular toilet in many Asian countries) Would be interested to try one. Would there be a toilet paper used for wipes? 
Men toilet etiquette for using urinals is one should never use up urinal right next to one being used. Is there etiquette for women urinals? 

[Chihiro]

9 hours ago, uniQChick said:

Men toilet etiquette for using urinals is one should never use up urinal right next to one being used. Is there etiquette for women urinals? 

I dunno, but it bothers me when someone occupies the stall next door when they could have used any other free stall available. I usually use the corner stalls so that at least on one side there won't be anybody

[uniQChick]

10 hours ago, Chihiro said:

... I usually use the corner stalls so that at least on one side there won't be anybody

I do the same. I guess both of us would be cornered if killer enters the room! 

[Luna04]

I despise public restrooms. I only go when absolutely necessary tbh

 

[dragonfire42]

I worked as a janitor in a department store for a year, and I can say that both the men's and the women's bathrooms had their moments of "ew, gross" and "why on earth would someone do that?" 

 

As for the questions at hand, I wouldn't feel unsafe in any way using the men's room (I just have to get past the feeling that it's socially unacceptable if I have no other option), and I've never been in (or seen) a gender-neutral bathroom, but as long as there were separate stalls and not any urinals (I would feel very embarrassed if I saw someone using one of those), I would not feel any more unsettled by using a gender-neutral public bathroom than I am by using a women's public bathroom. I do avoid using public bathrooms unless I absolutely cannot hold it until I get home, but that's just for fear of germs and because I'm too embarrassed to do anything other than pee if anyone else is in there, not because I feel unsafe in any way.

[Janus the Fox]

I’d like to see more gender inclusive stalls, I like how my health clinic does it, simple unisex bathrooms, one room, one stall, for anybody, one person.  How it should be I’d say.  Regardless I can use both stalls, often for an urgent health need as a serious priority but I have ‘can’t wait’ card to access any business staff bathroom, otherwise I do use the disabled toilet at times for physical ease of use based on current disability limitations.

[iff]

@Anonymous Axolotl

 

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