Why do urinals exist?

Serious answer:

• They use a shit ton less water.
• Vandal-proof urinals are a lot cheaper than vandal-proof toilets.
• They use less space.
• Men are a lot quicker in and out than when using toilets. They don't dally or sit scrolling on their phones, blocking others.
• Less chance of drug use.
• When smoking was still popular, playing "scoot the cigarette butt" was a decent multi-player game.

If anyone is interested, there's a lot of, ahem, "time and motion" studies on public conveniences out there.

urinals use a lot less water which is a very good thing and also your pee shouldn't be splashing on you when you use a urinal

hope this helps

I’ve never had another person’s pee splatter on me at a urinal.

Urinals are not any less sanitary than toilets. If anything, they are more sanitary because contactless.

Furthermore, they are optional. Many people do not feel ashamed to be seen peeing and have no hangups when it comes to using a urinal. I grew up playing outside with friends and often being far from a bathroom, and it wasn’t unusual to go find a tree in the woods to pee instead of finding a toilet.

Do you like having other people's pee splatter all over you?

I do, and I'm tired of pretending I don't

we'll look back at urinals like we look back at communal toilets in Rome.... It's a barbaric practice.

Which is it Roman or barbaric? Make up your mind!

People need to pee way more than poop, most people using a public restroom just need to piss. This is especially true at public places that involve drinking (bars, concerts, sporting events). So having a thing you can just walk up to and piss in is more efficient than having people have to get in and out of a stall. Also poopers don't have to compete with pissers for toilet space.

Plus their easier to clean, especially when you're dealing with people who have bad aim, which also connects back to the alcohol thing.

I have a long screed that I’ve repeated many times to friends about why I love that urinals still exist, but I’m too depressed to write it atm. Maybe I’ll come back to this in the morning

The best argument in favor of urinals is that you can fit more in the same space, but I have sympathy for folks that don't like using them.

When I was a teen I hated using urinals. In most places they're optional, but in a busy public bathroom situation there's a social pressure to use them because otherwise you're standing in a public bathroom waiting while there is open urinal stalls.

Fenway Park used to have these horrible open trough urinals that were like a 12 foot wide urinal with no dividers and had a line most of the time. When the smallest hole opened people behind you would want you to be hip to hip with other people pissing. Fuck that.

I don't want to get piss on the toilet seat.

FWIW, I'm in China

So I frequent 2 bars, next to each other in the same building. Basically cookie cutters of each other, one has a unisex bathroom with 4 stalls and one has gendered bathrooms, bathroom 1 with 3 urinals and 1 stall, bathroom 2 with 2 stalls.

I've not had issues with either the unisex or the gendered bathrooms, but the line is simply noticably longer for the unisex bathroom. In a densely populated situation where people are drinking a lot of beer and space is a premium, fitting 4 people peeing at the same time on a Saturday night vs 3 in urinals + 1 (in men's) and 2 (in women's) decongests the whole process by a lot.

Do as the British do and urinate in public.

It's a tradition that goes back literal centuries.

Northernlions bit about how urinals are actually sexism resonated with me: they are a single sex infrastructure, and men deserve the seated toilets just as women do!

why use a urinal when you can just go in the gutter outside?

we should teach people without piss hoses to use urinals. it would save a lot of time at events, once covid is adequately addressed