I can completely understand why so many people have a phobia of public bathrooms. I have a lot of stomach issues so I get to visit a lot of bathrooms when I am out and about. Let’s face it, there is absolutely NO privacy in a public restroom. Even though there are stalls to separate you from the person on the next toilet, everyone can hear every little sound you make. Beyond the fact that public bathrooms are rarely cleaned properly, the stall designs leave a lot to be desired. (Since companies have no control over customers who talk on cell phones while in the bathroom, I will save my rant for things the company can control.)
Bathroom failure #1: While the obesity rate in America is growing, the bathroom stalls are getting smaller. Ever been in a bathroom stall where the door opens so close to the toilet that you have to straddle the toilet in order to close or open the door? You step forward to pull down your pants, sit down to do your business, and the toilet paper holder is touching your leg. Talk about making a person feel claustrophobic. Then you get to go through the dance routine again in order to pull up your pants and open the door.
Bathroom failure #2: Vertically challenged toilets. I understand when designing a public bathroom, the designer has to keep in mind those people who are vertically challenged and children . . . but some designers take it to the extreme. At 5’4”, I am considered somewhat vertically challenged but I have been in bathrooms that make me feel like a giant! The seat on the toilet is barely a foot off of the floor and your knees are at chest level when you sit down. Yes, these stalls may have been designed for children but when you are in a public bathroom and the child is too small to sit on a regular height toilet, then the child should be with an adult. (It is just common sense that you do not let a small child out of your site when in a public place.) These miniature toilets were designed for elementary schools, not your typical business bathrooms.
I have also had the joy of trying to use a public bathroom where my toes barely touched the ground when I sat down. I could understand having a taller toilet in a handicap stall so that it is easier for the person to get back up but if the person is trying to get out of a wheel chair, it would make it more difficult to get up on a taller toilet.
Bathroom failure #3: The miss-aligned stall where the toilet is off-center from the stall door. This is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to privacy issues in a public bathroom. The stall is actually big enough to turn around in but when you sit down on the toilet, you can see the people on the outside of the stall trough the inch wide crack between the door and the stall wall. If you can see them, they can see you. The miss-aligned toilet happens when the bathroom is redesigned but they do not move the toilets. This also leads to the stalls that are so narrow that you can’t turn around. I know it cost the company more to re-plumb a bathroom than it does to simply move the stall walls around but why spend the money to remodel a bathroom and not do a complete job.
Bathroom failure #4: Improperly flushing toilets. The invention of motion detectors for the toilet to self-flush is awesome . . . except when it doesn’t flush correctly. Each motion detector has to be set for short-range detection or the toilet will flush every time someone walks by the stall. If the range in too short, it can flush before the person is completely off of the toilet. Ever leaned forward to wipe and had the toilet flush on you? Not fun since you will usually get splashed with the nasty water. Part of the problem of flushing too soon can be blamed on the delay timer not being set properly. The motion detector has a delay timer that has to be set so that the toilet will flush after the person has gotten off the toilet but before they leave the stall. If the motion detector and the delayed timer are not properly set, the toilet may not automatically flush. Most people are so use to the automatic flush that they do not stop to make sure the toilet flushes.
Another problem with the toilets in public bathrooms does not depend on the automatic flush features. Even the public bathrooms that still have the old fashioned manual flush can have the following issues. There is a fine balance between not enough force to flush and too much force. A toilet with not-enough force will leave stuff in the toilet after it has flushed – often leaving bits of toilet paper floating. A toilet with too much force will cause the water to spray outside of the toilet – leaving a wet seat and possibly a wet floor.
Bathroom failure #5: Only having one method to dry your hands after washing. Many public bathrooms have switched to using blow dryers as a more environmentally friendly way to dry hands as opposed to paper towels. The problem here once again relates back to improperly programmed features. If the heat and air speed of the blow dryer is set too, then it will not dry hands. If the heat and air speed is set too high, the person may get burned. There is also the time issue since it takes longer to stand there and blow dry your hands than it does to grab a paper towel or two. If the company uses soap with moisturizer, it can cause the blow dryer to take even longer to dry the person’s hands. The time issue can also be a problem with high traffic bathrooms because the company usually only have one or two blow dryers, which means people will have to wait in line to dry their hands.
Offering only paper towels in a public bathroom can cause issues as well. The bathrooms need checked several times a day to ensure there is always paper towels available and that the trash cans are not overflowing. Customers can get pretty irate when there are no paper towels available in the bathroom. The ideal public bathroom would offer a minimum of two blow dryers and two paper towel dispensers. This would allow the eco-friendly customers to use the blow dryers and the people in a hurry can grab the paper towels.
Bathroom failure #6: My finally failure for public bathrooms is not really about the stall. It is more like a failure on the part of the companies. Using cheap toilet paper in the public bathrooms!! Yes, the one-ply paper may be cheaper to put in the bathrooms, but the customers are going to use more in the long run. Customers – especially females – know that if they use too little toilet paper, their fingers will end up going through the paper mid-wipe. Nasty! Most people will use more than enough paper to wipe if the paper is cheap one-ply. This leads to having to replace the toilet paper more often and clogged toilets.
Another problem with cheap toilet paper is that it can feel like you are wiping with sandpaper!
So I guess this ends my rant on public bathrooms . . . for the moment anyway.
