TIL occupied indicators are not standard in the rest of the world.
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Exactly! I genuinely learnt something from this post. What a strange world we live in, something so basic for over a century is not used by the hegemon
I think it's uniquely US problem, along with weird gaps so you can always look at the person shiting
In the US just peer through the crack between the door and the wall. Ensure solid eye contact with the current occupant. Determine how much time they've left. Adjust plan accordingly.
I always reach under the stalls to grab their ankles. Scaring the shit out of them speeds things up
The most literal case of scaring the shit out of someone.
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You shouldn't do that.
The doors are deliberately designed to have a large gap on the bottom, so you can poke your head through. This is the correct way of doing it.
We have these for years in Europe
Where is the 6 in gap between the door and stall??
America
cries in imperial units
To be fair, it sounds better to have a 1 meter gap than it does to have a 3 foot gap when you have no sense of scale.
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I thought this is everywhere
And I've never been to Europe
I'm middle aged and I don't recall a time in my life when vacant/occupied indicators weren't on all public toilets.
They do in the UK - where are you?
Yeah I don't think I've ever seen one without, but being red-green colour blind I wish most didn't only use those colours
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Because in the US you can usually see the person shitting through the ridiculous gaps in the stalls.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Yeah here in Japan most places have a red and blue indicator that moves with the lock. Bidets and toilet seat sanitizers are also pretty standard in any decently modernized areas. We kinda win when it comes to bathrooms.
Just got back from Japan. I'm always surprised when I'm in the middle of nowhere and the public restrooms have heated sitting, deodorizer, bidet, background sounds. Like... Wtf? That's better than my toilet at home. And I'm not even from the US 🙃
They do...
Cost. The gaps in most NA stalls are so big you will know whether it's occupied anyway just by walking past.
Was a bit of a shock when I went to Japan and all the stalls are just small rooms within the restroom. It was nice. Bidet game is on point too.
The way it should be 😔
Wait till you see Kansas City airport they have lights outside showing you how many occupied, and lights inside showing you red or green for what's empty full
Americans, isn't it?
Next they realise that toilets shouldn't have massive gaps around and under the doors.
Y'all are living with prison toilets.
Uh, like if the door’s closed it’s more than likely occupied.
Useless if the door swings shut by default, likely from poor horizontal alignment.
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You guys don't have an indicator near the door handle?? It's super common in the Netherlands. Almost every toilet has a small indicator, except for maybe some old doors the owners didn't replace, but all else always shows if it's occupied or not (not that people won't try anyway even if red for occupied).
I'm genuinely curious to know where in the world you live. I would be horrified if someone was peeking under the stalls or bothering people by knocking on the doors.
‘murica
Land of freedom.
Freedom to poop with a giant gap between the door.
Freedom to piss in a urinal with no divider.
Freedom to wipe with toilet paper so thin, so dainty, that it's practically see through.
When I frequented small cafés before the epidemic lockdown, it was typical in San Francisco to get frequent impatient door-knockers.
Part of the problem is the lack of publicly available restroom facilities. Shopping malls often might have two restroom pairs, usually at the food court and by the movie theater, and then one each at thr major department stores, typically hidden by the changing rooms.
I cannot say how this compares to other towns or other nations, but designing public lots in The Sims 2, I quickly learned to make sure there were facilities a short walk from everywhere. (Also skip the sinks and install showers, since sims dress and undress with a quick spin)
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TIl us North Americans apparently are the only ones with this problem...
I just leave the door open, that way everyone knows I'm in there. I even wave at the kids.
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All the ones I've seen stand open when they're not locked.
They do.
Some do. Most are too cheap to bother.
In my experience most do? Maybe the US is different from everywhere else?
Probably.
Most stalls are bolted together pieces of cheap metal with the most basic latch you can imagine. If an indicator adds 10 cents to the cost it’s not going to happen.
The US is cheap. We even famously have large gaps between the door/stall panels. I can only imagine it is to accommodate temperature/humidity changes so that they don't jam.
Nicer places sometimes have actual deadbolt locks connected to a vacant/occupied indicator on the exterior. But it is rare. Usually it's just a gapped stall with a sliding lock that will often not even line up correctly without wiggling the door.
In some instances I have had to use my gym key fob in place of the missing sliding mechanism to secure the door.
It's to shame you out of doing drugs and having sex in the stalls. It doesn't work because people who are going to do that in a public toilet are usually immune to said shame.
Never seen one in the US. Also in the US, 10% or so don’t even close right. Plus a 30 cm gap on the bottom and a half cm gap on both sides of the door.
It’s only an illusion of privacy; anyone can look through the door or under the stall.
Basically they skimp like mad on this basic infrastructure because they don't care. Whatever companies make the standard shitty metal toilet cubicles in the US have a lot to answer for.
Porta potty doors swing closed automatically, so they need the indicator. In public bathrooms, the doors stay open, so if it's closed it's occupied.
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