expensive option, but hey, maybe we should tax the churches for the bathroom upgrades they are demanding.

If they can preach violence and harassment toward other people they can start paying their share of taxes, can't they?

some interior walls. $500 parts and maybe $1000 labor or so.

but the only real option is something along this line, with individual stalls catering to whomever needs to use it.

Or maybe just admit that the system was actually working until some idiot starting screaming about shit that ain't even real.

Only instead of taxing businesses you're just making them pay it directly to general contractors and Loews.

going forward with new construction, this idea should be seriously considered.

but the second part of my solution might have been better. Acknowledge that this is a made up problem to energize the rubes in southern states to vote for the "moral good guys" with Rs after their names.

IMO if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Transgenders have been going restrooms of their choice for forever and it hasn't been a problem.

Where do the repugs think they've been going to the bathroom in public all this time? Out behind the building or something?

They already got publicity they didn't have to pay for. Plus they get points for creativity.

That's worth some plywood, IMO...

goes properly viral, there will be print and broadcast news stories about it.

If it goes viral like that, they couldn't have purchased that amount of positive advertising for any amount of money.

and for all the other crap they demand too. In fact, just tax the church already!

They are free to practice their "religion" but need to pay for the demands they put on others.

I did enjoy running an errand the other day, needing the bathroom, dancing about in front of the 'mens' and having one of the ladies exit the other bathroom and say 'it's all you man' as she left the door open for me. Felt normal.

and women need more time -- so they should be providing more toilets than urinals.

If they are already doing this, code official have checked off on it and it complies.

more toilets, and urinals than they would have had they separated the two restrooms.

Basically, they would have fewer toilets in a woman's restroom had they decided to make a separate space.

There is mention of the efficiency here... http://washington.newschoolbeer.com/2015/12/21/the-founder-of-optimism-brewing-answers-our-burning-questions/

[div]As a woman, realizing that there are often two toilet stalls unused in the men's room all the time, I realized this is a tremendous, inefficient use of resources.

It did occur to BOTH of the owners (husband and wife), that they could get a higher, overall number of facilities can be increased by sharing the space. If they had to separate 2 restrooms, they would have to accomodate for the space in-between the two rooms, and leave enough space to accommodate ADA requirements, you would end up with fewer stalls in each bathroom.

By opening up the space, they can exceed the number of urinals, and toilets required for a business of their size. In the end they have more urinals, AND more toilets than if they did not. Therefore fewer people would have to wait, if they have to wait at all because the design is more efficient.

Less water used (or with the waterless urinals, none at all)

Everyone's shit stinks I CRACK ME UP LOL

There are three more doors along the right side. There is a large gap after the 6th door, then there are 3 additional doors.

My best guess, is that the 6th door, and then the further down 7th door most likely are ADA stalls. They are required to be larger to facilitate wheelchairs, hence the large gap. The urinals however seem to stop after 6. The space towards the end of the urinal side may be used as a storage or utility closet accessible from outside the bathroom.

So from my count, you have 6 urinals, and 9 toilets.

I hope this alleviates your concern.

Men can use either urinals or toilets. Women can only use the toilets. The ratio is all wrong.

I really think this is the right idea, even if it needs some adjustments.

And have fingers left over. Ratio seems fine to me.

That, and it's a brewery/restaurant, not a theater or stadium area where people tend to all go at once.

I've never seen a restaurant br with more than 2 toilet stalls maxed out in my life.

so:
1. more men than women
2. more pee than poop

I doubt that's in the Intl Bldg Code, though!

That isn't the case where I live but maybe it is here.

and actually fits more toilets in there than would be available in a gender-segregated setup.

local Delta Gamma chapter.

From the photos of their visits, it would actually appear that it was an even split of women / men at the brewery on those particular evenings.

lighten up, DU

that old building codes used to assume that more men would be using public buildings, so the codes were written to require more bathrooms for men than for women.

And many of these old buildings still exist today -- for example, the Senate Office Building is famous for making women Senators walk to another floor to find a restroom.

So the issue of women's access to bathrooms isn't really a joking matter, at least for most women.

I also have an architect wife that tells me when she has to wait in a line while I sail right through. She is often quite vexed. This brewery, however, was built under today's /IBC/SBC, which requires more fixtures for women than men.

I stand by my comment about people peeing more than pooping at breweries. THAT IS NOT A JOKE.

If you can't laugh at the absurdity of Merica, you'll be angry 24/7.

but you do realize that "the beer shits" are a thing, right?

I'm assuming the toilets get as much use as the urinals, even if there are more men than women.

that has not been my experience at breweries, and I've been in a few.

Last edited Thu May 26, 2016, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)

they separated the two spaces. So basically, they have more toilets available.

.... but good work! Freaking out over made up problems is not necessary.

a year or so ago the mayor (who is openly gay if that even matters) got an ordinance passed that all single stall bathrooms be gender neutral. There was initially a huge uproar, mainly because people didn't understand that in a bathroom that had more than one stall, they'd still be separate men's and women's.

And I've noticed that some years back several business had already done this. I like to eat at Waffle House when I'm travelling, and all the ones I've ever been in had two toilets, one for men, one for women. Several years ago I noticed that now both bathrooms were marked with both symbols, for men and for women. Makes enormous sense.

Personally I wouldn't be all that crazy about using the above pictured facility, but that has to do with my own personal sense of privacy. But if that's the one available, I'd be using it.

to manufactured crisis in a rightwing culture war. Any concession only encourages more idiocy.

Comes as close to idiot-proof as possible, I think...

Any response from the loonies to that would be so absurd that it would likely alienate many of the only-vaguely-loonies.

At least, I would hope...

women should have to use the men's room.

Or they'll just start attacking the doctors who treat trans people.

They might pivot to that, I suppose, as a sign of moral decay (although bathroom stalls based on function rather than gender actually kind of make sense...)

The second possibility, of course, I agree with you about.

I live in Minnesota, and we don't see much of these nonsense 'culture war' issues play out much, although the state did give the country Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann...

This absurdity kind of makes me take a few days off, head to some of the states where the ridiculousness is worst, and do a bit of... agitating.

bathrooms, all stalls are enclosed and private. It took me a while to figure it out since when i first saw women coming out I was like "Oh that's the women's bathroom" so in my limited French I asked the clerk where is the Men's WC and she pointed to the coed one... then I saw a women and a man come out at the same time. This was in 2000.

It was strange washing my hands next to an older lady but it was no friggin problem.

Some... Americans are too fucking uptight and need to get a clue.

And stopped to use the bathroom. They had trough style urinals with no dividers. While peeing with some other guys, a woman came in and actually started cleaning the urinal while we were using it. It was strange peeing in it while she was cleaning it but I was there first. Lol

WTF... Krauts. This little hump back curmudgeon lady started literally mopping between my legs at the trough....

Wrong wingers need to get out of the USA for a bit, it might loosen them up a bit. They won't be worried about going to the bathroom as much.

Damn stupid non-controversy in the first place. Very simple, creative solution.

Which I don't particularly care about but the business owner might. More "open" bathrooms make that kind of thing a little more difficult (at least that was my dive bar's excuse for not having partitions between the stalls).

They knew their market. I kind of miss those days, though I don't miss an entire paycheck winding up in my sinuses...

It would stop women from standing in long lines while there's no one in the mens' room as a side benefit. Of course, the religious Nazis would never let this happen, where they are in control, so I'll never see them in FL.

This is a brewery. Men piss all over toilet seats when they're SOBER (anyone who thinks that men only piss in urinals has never spent any time in a mens public restroom..men will walk right past urinals to piss in toilets.) Men piss EVERYWHERE when they're drunk...the toilet seat, the wall, the floor, on themselves.

Within a month, this is going to look (and smell) like the mens bathroom in every bar in America, and the women are going to be wishing for their women's-only bathroom back.

I used to clean bathrooms for a living.

Neither room is pretty.

the partitions are made of wood -although they do appear to have a slick surface - which absorbs odors and does not easily wipe clean . The down- to- the- floor partitions prevent flow- through ventilation and create 4 hard-to-clean corners in each stall.

There is a good reason for the high-off-the-floor, not-to-the-ceiling, metal partition design of our current public bathrooms

potty privacy? Because TPTB want to make sure that the enforcers can check what is going on in the stalls must in case they suspect someone might be doing drugs, masturbating, or having sex. Think about that. The lack of privacy in public toilets is a deliberate policy thought up by authoritarians.

These urinals and toilets are an excellent solution. Is it a relatively new set up, or has it always been that way?

ON EDIT:Oops! I just now read Xithras' post above mine. That is a problem I never considered. Of course, one reason why some men prefer toilets to urinals might be that they want to pee in private, and those urinals would solve that problem for them. Urinals would probably be preferred by most men, even those who choose toilets now, if they were private.

I'm a toilet pisser (though, growing up in a home with three sisters, I was forced to develop impeccable aim). It has more to do with the fact that urinals often cause splashback that can get urine on your clothes, shoes and skin. It's an unfortunate double edged sword...stand to far away and any "drips" will end up on your shoes or the floor, but stand to close and you'll get pelted with a fine mist of musky piss.

A toilet catches the drips. The water in the bowl and the distance prevent splashback. That's why many of us prefer them. Unfortunately, most men have AWFUL aim and get piss all over the place anyway.

Unless they are cleaned religiously, mens restrooms can be pretty awful places. Many men won't #2 in mens rooms, simply because we KNOW how abused and disgusting those toilet seats are.

directly on the toilet seat that so many other butts have sat on. Some restrooms provide disposable plastic or paper seat covers, but most do not. Some women use a length of toilet paper to line the seat before sitting on it, but others just hover above the seat while peeing. That inevitably leaves the seat and the floor covered in urine, because women are even worse designed than men for precise aiming.

Fortunately that situation (pun intended) isn't one most of us run into often, but most of us have encountered a few nasty toilets in our lives. Interesting, isn't it, that the most fastidious women, the ones who recoil at the idea of sitting on a public toilet seat, are the ones who leave the most disgusting mess for others to deal with?

Here in California, toilet seat covers are nearly universal in bathrooms and I couldn't imagine using one without a cover. While hovering is always an option for those "can't wait" situations, I'll usually find another bathroom if covers aren't available. I can't understand the mentality of people who plop their bare butts onto a seat covered in other peoples urine.

the seat before lining it. The slight dampness from the wipe also helps the TP lining to stick for the short time it is needed. I would not hover and mess up the seat for others.

I imagine it just goes Into the paper your using.

What disease can you get from sitting on a toilet, in America? Is this actually an issue? Or is this a result of growing up with years of Clorox ads and same group addicted to hand sanitizers fighting invisible evil.

Maybe the fix are the squat toilets found in Asia.

seat. One covered in urine is avoided altogether, of course!

A careless, clumsy person can leave invisible contamination behind, and there are nasty germs that can be transferred that way. Here is a site that details 5 of them:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/infectious/5-diseases-toilet.htm

It seems like proper hand washing would solve 99% of the problem.

Good to know the kitchen sponge is dirtier than a public restroom toilet seat. 😳

Piss, shit, menstrual blood all over the place, toilet paper and tampons/napkins dropped on the floor, paper towels shoved down and flushed until the toilet overflows. And then they won't wash their hands.

All levels of business places, from a pizza parlor to a community college, and places I've only visited that one would think would only have "nice" people using the toilets. People always tell me that these people aren't that way at home, but I think they actually are. Why would one go to such efforts to make a mess, if one was used to being clean at home?

Men can be taught to aim as boys. I did with mine, enforcing the idea that no one wants to come behind them and have to step all over their piss.

my pet peeve. Just shows how self centered people are. They are too good to sit on the toilet but don't mind leaving that mess for me.

That doesn't solve the problem for existing construction, which I would imagine accounts for most of the public restrooms out there. The costs would be astronomical to retrofit all of the existing public restrooms.

The bathroom issue is just a red herring.

That said... You're not going to retrofit your facilities unless you're already planning a remodel and to spend money doing it.

The most efficient use of bathroom space is building somewhat larger toilets where a woman (or man) can sit down to use it and a man can pee into the same toilet at the same time via a tube that goes between the legs of the person sitting down. A divider between the two people would obviously be present so that no one sexually assaults someone else. But once we evolve to a high enough level of consciousness we can remove that divider and just let the man aim between the legs of the other person. That is how bathrooms should work

Person A, could sit in the normal customary position, and person B could face them and sit on person A's lap. As long as person A doesn't close their legs, I think the same could be accomplished. This way you aren't relegating only men to the standing position.

That sounds very... efficient. And exciting

By the time I'm ready to go, it's like the old Willy Water Bug...

All kinds of folks find them useful and private. Moms with strollers and toddlers in tow certainly do. Carving out some space for transgendered individuals has already been done, if you look at it that way.

Some people are just never satisfied.