warrrreagl

Apparently, the US Government will roll up its sleeves and tackle the beast known as The Ladies Room.

I think they could vote to quadruple the number of women's public facilities, and it wouldn't do one damn thing to speed up the lines. What in the hell do y'all do in there? What's your routine? Do you paper the seat? Hover? Flush with your foot?

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Hektore

Imagine every single guy who walked into a restroom was dropping a deuce; that's their routine and why the lines are so long. Also, you can get more urinals in a given area than you can stalls.

More receptacles + faster transactions = shorter lines

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snowy

There are newer sports facilities (such as Safeco Field) here in the PacNW where the women's restrooms have more stalls than the men's restrooms have urinals/stalls, in order to combat lines. Having been to a sold-out Mariners game at Safeco, I can tell you it makes a difference over the old Kingdome (which definitely did not have potty parity). At Safeco, there is also one more women's bathroom, and there are family restrooms too (a facility I'd like to see in more public places).

Another thing that I think helps with lines a bit is if there's a separate area for women to powder their noses (so to speak), and if the area around the sink is designed well for traffic flow (can people wash their hands and reach the paper towels/dryer easily?). I like to get in and out of the bathroom as quickly as possible, and so I'd prefer if the women who like to eyeball themselves in the mirror had to go to some other area to do it.

I'd also like to see more of these in bathrooms:

We hit up almost all of the major museums in Chicago in September, and ended up comparing notes between the restrooms as to which was best. The Dyson Airblade was one of the only hand dryers we thought did a good job of actually drying hands, and because of the way you put your hands into the dryer, you don't drip everywhere. I think it would help speed up the process of getting in and out of the bathroom, in addition to waste.

I think it's great the government wants to take this on. It's about damn time. I think the sports facilities example above illustrates that some organizations realized a long time ago that the bathroom facilities for women were inadequate, and have dealt with it successfully.

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Iliftrocks

Aren't there urinals for women out in the wide world?

I have no problems with parity. In fact since women are more than 50% of the population, a little on the plus side is probably fair. Men do tend to have it easier with the whole whip it out and go situation.

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noodle

I'm telling you, if they sold these in more places, the lines would be MUCH shorter.

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Cimarron29414

Women are different than men, make the toilets that meet their needs - just like you made urinals to meet men's needs. Pretty simple.

Noodle, there is no frickin' way that will be a solution. I'm guessing less than 1% of women would use those. Creative, though!

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noodle

They're so freaking awesome and simple to use.
You'd be surprised

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Cynthetiq

In the north they make lemon snow cones with those things.

Get 'em in and get 'em out. I don't know about such things as loads for total amount of people and traffic in federal buildings, but most the times, I'm alone in the bathroom. It's only places like sports arenas and airports where it's really trafficked for me, and I can see the effects there for women.

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MSD

Get a few experts in, listen to what they say, and take their recommendations. If there's a problem, and it sounds like there is, fix it.

I stayed in a University of Tennessee women's dorm once (mixed groups coming in from all over the world over the summer) and they had women's urinals in all the bathrooms. There were no dividers and I can't imagine the mechanics of using one unless the woman were wearing a skirt and no underwear.