• Technoworcester@lemm.eeEnglish
    89·
    3 days ago

    You know outside of the US most countries bathrooms stalls actually work / fit / don’t have peekaboo gaps?

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      In a lot of public stalls in Japan, the outer end of the door is rounded. And the wall it connects to when closed is concaved. So even though there’s a gap to allow the door to open and close freely, there no direct line of sight.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
        20·
        3 days ago

        That sounds like it would cost 5¢ more to manufacture and install. Won’t someone think of the shareholders?

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
        1·
        3 days ago

        I don’t know about ‘a lot’ but these are definitely in recently-renovated stations and buildings, at least in areas with high traffic. I definitely still see many that are only vaguely better than the US outside of Tokyo and the other big cities.

    • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
      56·
      3 days ago

      Peekaboo gaps exist outside the states don’t gaslight our readers. Urinals in Heathrow are just a fucking trough you’re supposed to piss in like you’re at a Red Sox game.

      Public restrooms in Britain at least aren’t any more enlightened than those in the States

  • Diddlydee@feddit.ukEnglish
    59·
    3 days ago

    America? America.

    The rest of the world somehow manages to make doors the size of the frame that go pretty much to the floor.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      22·
      3 days ago

      In America, the reason is basically “religion”. There are architectural standards which designers refer to for guidance, and the dude who did the architectural standard for restrooms was super hardcore religious. His standard called for big gaps in all the seams, to prevent people from masturbating in the stalls. Basically, he wanted people to be able to peek into stalls, as a sort of modesty check. And eventually, it just became accepted as normal, even though everyone (including Americans who were born and raised with them as the standard) hates the huge gaps.

      In modern day, they’re mostly done to deter drug use. I guess the reasoning is similar, with the large gaps intended to allow people to peek into the stalls and see if someone is doing drugs.

      • vfsh@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        5·
        3 days ago

        For what it’s worth regardless of how it started, it’s now enforced by ADA as an accessibility compliance issue, so that a wheelchair users feet can get under the stall door so they can get close enough to reach the latch. Seems like a stretch to me but I’m not a wheelchair user

        • silasmariner@programming.dev
          8·
          3 days ago

          I’m not sure what kinda gymnastics the wheelchair user’s got to be doing to get on the shitter once they’ve rolled themselves into a stall backwards… Or why it’s only after a shit that they can’t use doors

        • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 days ago

          Some stalls are tiny, and in old construction there’s not a lot you can do with out major renovations. I’m sure the extra leg room is appreciated by taller folks, or if you can’t really bend your lower legs in towards you.

      • Diddlydee@feddit.ukEnglish
        14·
        3 days ago

        I travel a lot for my job, maybe fifty different countries the past 5 or 6 years, and I’ve never seen toilet doors as silly and poorly-designed as US ones, except in places where they’re just making do with what they have.

        • Owl@mander.xyz
          23·
          3 days ago

          I didn’t travel as much as you (far from it)

          But in every contry I’ve ever been there were toilet doors reaching the ground and floating ~20cm over it in about equal amounts

          • aramova@infosec.pub
            31·
            3 days ago

            Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, South Korea, Japan were all essentially private booths. Should be standard.

            UK was a bit of a cluster, Philippines had doors sometimes, Italy was almost like America at least around Florence when I was there 20 years ago

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    3 days ago

    This is absolutely by design, and it is so users can be provided the absolute minimum of Privacy-ishtm, but also explicitly so that management can easily verify if a stall is occupied in case any poors/junkies are camping out in there.

    It’s also so that public bathroom facilities can be spray-down, and you can wedge a brush in the gaps easily without there being crevices for mold/mildew and other… substances… to remain in.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      3 days ago

      … except the recently renovated bathrooms at the Denver Public Library have individual locking shit-shacks with communal sinks. It’s not like junkies avoid the DPL, they have a box of Narcan bolted to the outside of the building.

    • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
      31·
      3 days ago

      Yes that makes sense

      You seem to be misattributing the causes of homelessness with public restroom design, though, which are two different things. It’s an arms race if anything.

      Idk maybe you live somewhere where there are a lot more problems with public toilets than I do

      Edit: who’s mad in this thread lol

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        I’m not attributing anything to anything, I am just stating an established fact as to why public bathroom stalls are designed that way. If you want to stick motives on people, find their original designers.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    13·
    3 days ago

    Does anyone else remember that very brief window where places like highway oases were putting in stalls where the door and walls only went up about halfway to the ceiling, making it so that if you were taking a dump, everyone could just watch you from the chest up?