trough luck

In visiting the Boulevard Drive-In on Friday I was reminded of one of my pet peeves. I cannot stand using trough urinals. Boulevard has two that are next to each other, so it is kind of like one long trough urinal. In talking with Golden I got the impression that she did not know much about the joys of trough urinals. For those like Golden who have limited experiences with these urinals, I found the following picture on Flickr.I personally don't know what the real value of a trough urinal is. Is it really worth saving the extra one or two hundred dollars that installing individual urinals will cost? They tend to show up in more rustic locations like campgrounds and high school football fields, but I have run into several in my lifetime.

There are probably guys who don't care one way or the other about standing shoulder to shoulder with other guys while they pee, but I am not one of them. From the expressions on the other guys' faces who have to go through this, I don't think most of them care for it all that much. Most suffer through because they have no other choice.

My limited experience with women's bathrooms and changing rooms is that much more thought goes into privacy there than in men's rooms. When I was a kid I used to visit a small park on Lake Oahe in South Dakota. The park was small enough that it did not have any bathrooms, but it did contain changing facilities for those who wanted to swim at the lake. The area designated for men was simply a large room with a long bench circumnavigating it with no real means of privacy. I disliked this, but figured there was no other way. Then one day I went with some friends to the park when we had it to ourselves and checked in on the women's changing area while I was there. I was shocked to find that rather than both sexes getting the same treatment, individual stalls had been erected so that the women could change in privacy.

I have one thing to say to people who are considering bathroom design in construction projects. Just say no to troughs.