
Why do most public toilet doors open inwards? - laurent123456
http://ux.stackexchange.com/q/18238/7235
======
robomartin
It is interesting how the oddest topics sometimes make the HN front page.

I think the real question here isn't why bathroom doors open in or out. The
question should be: Why aren't hand washing facilities just outside the
bathroom?

Wouldn't you feel better if you actually saw the cook at the restaurant
washing his hands when exiting the bathroom? Also, social pressure would
probably cause more people to clean-up.

Just one of those "outside the box" thoughts.

~~~
vacri
if you have a manual misadventure and end up with poo on your finger, do you
really want to be dancing out into public with it held out in front of you?

~~~
Nikker
I'm guessing the washrooms in your area don't have sanitary paper(toilet
paper).

~~~
vacri
I don't mean that it's dripping with poo. I mean that you've wiped it with
paper and it still needs a wash. In this case, you're not going to be using
your hand normally, picking up your things or putting it in your pocket, are
you?

~~~
Nikker
I gotta ask. After you wipe you still have your smartphone in your hands don't
you.

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bencoder
In the UK doors almost always open inwards. From the more public area to the
less public area. I always figured this was for safety so you don't hit people
in the more public area when opening the door. The comments on the linked site
also indicate this could be to stop the possibility of the door being blocked
from the outside.

Interestingly, in Finland, in my experience it's the opposite - almost
everything opens outwards. Which is surprising considering the much higher
probability of being snowed in and not being able to push the door out.

~~~
cpa
In France, virtually all public areas have doors that open outwards. To the
best of my knowledge, there is no law that make this mandatory, but the
reasoning is that in case of an event that requires evacuation, doors that
open inwards would trap people inside, whereas doors that open outwards would
let them go outside.

~~~
toong
The european building codes (Euro Code) recommend public areas have doors
opening outwards. This is not a (european) binding law, it's a recommendation.

National building codes can make this law.

In Belgium, your building-permit contains a clause you need approval from the
city fire-department. They send a fireman that has to check the safety of your
building. If it's a public building, your main exit doors must be opening
outwards, for evacuation purposes. But they don't care about the toilet door
...

Interesting fact in the same context: in the case of an emergency, your
elevator would not be available and you should use the staircase. It is
required by the same set of laws that if you follow the staircase all the way
down, you have to end up at the ground floor, not in the basement. This is
accomplished most of the time by adding another corner or a door to get to the
basement level. Additionally, this door MUST open towards the staircase, so
confused, scared people don't accidentally go through this door and end up in
the basement.

(The fireman check emergency-sings & lightning, exit-routes, if there are fire
extinguisher available in accessible places, ... If they find any violations,
you get a grace period to fix things. Your building permit is actually revoked
if you don't resolve the issues. I'm not sure what the consequences are
actually ?)

~~~
vidarh
> Interesting fact in the same context: in the case of an emergency, your
> elevator would not be available and you should use the staircase. It is
> required by the same set of laws that if you follow the staircase all the
> way down, you have to end up at the ground floor, not in the basement. This
> is accomplished most of the time by adding another corner or a door to get
> to the basement level. Additionally, this door MUST open towards the
> staircase, so confused, scared people don't accidentally go through this
> door and end up in the basement.

One of the previous places I worked, we had a fireman talk us through the
emergency procedures for the building at one point, and he recounted how it
was relatively common for them to find dead people immediately inside exits
that were locked, but where the key was in the door, or that opened the wrong
way, or in other situations where anyone would've trivially gotten out in
seconds in normal conditions, as a way of illustrating just how confusion and
fear or carbon monoxide/lack of oxygen would sometimes make people totally
unable to overcome even the most basic obstacles during a fire.

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redshirtrob
I'm disappointed. I thought this was going to be about why stall doors always
open toward the actual toilet. And I thought the accepted answer was going to
be so the user can hold the broken door closed with his foot.

~~~
gojomo
From the headline I thought that might be the topic, also.

Your theory is good, but I suspect the main reason for stall-doors to open-in
is to prevent the door swinging-out to collide with other people, as with the
dominant explanation for the full-bathroom door. This is likely an even bigger
concern in typically cramped bathrooms than the entry hallways.

Also, to the extent that stall walls/doors are often generic hardware, reused
in many cramped spaces, having the doors open inward may give designers more
confidence that the swinging of the door is not obstructed by local
constraints. (Allocating the rectangle footprint for the stall ensures entry
works, as opposed to allocating the rectangle-plus-outward-swinging-door-
semicircle).

Another lesser consideration might be that an inward-swinging door makes
occupancy by more than one person somewhat more difficult.

------
twelvechairs
As an architect, the confidence and speed with which these 'UI'-people put
forward half-baked (and mostly-incorrect) ideas is both heartening and
disheartening.

A better question which I'm yet to find a good answer for - why do American's
feel the need to fill their toilets to the brim with water as opposed to
everywhere else in the world?

~~~
gadders
I think the German "Poo Shelf" toilets are weirder [1] [2]. I heard this was
because of the large quantites of Pork consumed, and the need to check for
worms.

No wonder Veronica Moser (NSFW!!) is so popular in Germany.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet#Reverse_bowl_desig...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet#Reverse_bowl_design_.28Flachsp.C3.BCler.29)
[2] [http://www.spiegel.de/international/hold-your-nose-toilet-
sh...](http://www.spiegel.de/international/hold-your-nose-toilet-shelf-on-
trial-a-406547.html)

~~~
StavrosK
Hah, there was a toilet like that in our hotel in Budapest, and I was
wondering what that's for! It seems like nobody knows of a reason, other than
"to gross you out".

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MojoJolo
While it's not the main problem he's talking about, I think Marco Arment
blogged a related solution for this. Here's the link,
<http://www.marco.org/2012/02/25/right-vs-pragmatic>. It's a great post guys,
I encourage you to read it. :)

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Avitas
This has already been solved to the satisfaction of germaphobes in virtually
all US airports. It is also the norm in public sports venues.

...no doors.

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colmvp
I prefer public toilets that have no door at all.

~~~
lloeki
I don't know how to take this (joke, irony or genuine) but that's a good
example of thinking outside the box vs focusing too much on the apparent cause
of the problem. Designing the restroom so that there's a corner obscuring the
view solves all problems.

~~~
chii
but without a door, you can't guarentee that the stall is private, and anyone
could just walk in while you do your business - a rather unpleasant thought.

~~~
DanBC
I think they're talking about the big room containing all the stalls, not the
individual stalls themselves.

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gkop
The Toepener lets you open the door with your foot -
<http://www.toepener.com/> .

~~~
laurent123456
Brilliant, all that's left is to install the device on the door before
entering the bathroom, then remove it when leaving. Just make sure you bring a
drill and some screws when going to the bathroom.

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bcoates
Bathroom doors are lockable so that the bathroom can be closed; ordinary
single doors that can be locked swing away from the locked-out side so that
the jamb and hinges are on the correct side.

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schiang
I usually avoid using the handle and open the door by pulling on the top of
the door. Even when I open a door, I try to pick a place that's least likely
to be used by other people.

~~~
tuananh
What if everyone all thinks like that and pick the same spot as you.

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atempcode
for toilet, people usually hurry in, but not so hurry out.

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gadders
What I have always wondered is why USA toilet stalls are so lacking in privacy
with massive gaps round the doors where you can see the occupants.

In the UK you usually can't be observed without someone sticking their head
over/under the partition.

~~~
illuminate
People in my office hang toilet paper down like crepe streamers to cover the
"gap". It's a little disconcerting sometimes, I'm not sure why that's a design
choice. Perhaps to get a glimpse of whether someone's in there or not without
actually seeing what's going on?

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cstuder
What interests me more is: Why are the free/occupied indicators on those doors
always so small?

Especially since the light in rest rooms are usually insufficiently bright to
distinguish between red and green.

~~~
jlgreco
I can't say I've ever noticed difficulty distinguishing green and red in
anything short of "full moon" light levels. Is it possible that you are
partially colorblind? It is fairly common among men, which really should make
us wonder why we use red/green at all...

~~~
Sharlin
In Finland it's usually red/white. I'm sure I'm speaking on behalf of all the
red-green colorblind people when I say I'm very pleased by this.

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slash-dot
It's because of fire safety codes. When doors open outwards it is easier to
evacuate the building of panicking people

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cmaxwe
They are generally easier to kick in if they open inwards. Might be part of
the reason.

