Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Ok, so cost and cleanability might be incentive so have doors like that, but not incentives to make regulations.

Those regulations likely there for "decency and safety". E.g. to discourage people having sex, or to make it more obvious if someone passes out. That is: the regulations really are there to make reduce privacy.

There might be good arguments for reducing privacy, but that is still the proximate goal of the rules.



I think the end goal is making it harder to do heroin in a bathroom.


Haha, probably cocaine as well. Some public restrooms seem designed to minimize flat surfaces, private access to clean water, and secluded locations, while others (like in some night clubs) have randomly placed shelves with hard, easily wipeable surfaces, etc.


Not entirely random: you need a place to set your drink while using the restroom.


In a public restroom, if there's a place to set a drink, trash cups will accumulate there. Then someone will have to be paid to clean them up.


Indeed, this one of the many reasons some night clubs have bathroom attendants.


I can understand this in a public restroom, but why do the bathrooms in my 30-story office building have to be this way?


I've heard that they were more to discourage illicit drug use than "indecency".


Who in their right mind would have sex in a public restroom? That's just disgusting. I very much doubt it has anything with reducing privacy.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: