I can see why you might think they were designed to straddle, but I don't believe that was the thinking at all. These were designed for unselfconscious college-age men to use by standing normally, just back a bit, giving their pee streams the needed force that comes so easily to the young.
There are many times when I envy men because they can pee standing up, but this would probably make me extremely glad I need to sit down in my own stall.
Hah, gus, you never miss an opportunity...back when "peeing like a racehorse" was an accurate description...
I would think there might be splashage issues, and what about when you have a bit of--what was it?--sement blockage, and you get some side spray? Gads, sitting down is sounding better all the time...
Your sensibilities! I don't know how it is on the West, but in my experience of the East is that everyone piddles on the floor and doesn't flush. So these urinals aren't meant to be straddled because you aren't meant to get it all in.
(My favorites are the pics I've seen of troughs... literal urinal troughs... at stadiums, maybe? The hole-in-the-floor is another fave. So are the self flushing ones -- that flush every 10 minutes regardless & wash down the whole stall...)
These remind me a bit of the "unisex (female?) urinals" that were placed on the third floor library ladies room when I was in college. Each was installed in it's own stall and were made so that women could walk straight in and straddle the elongated bowl to pee. No cheeks ever needed to touch a dirty toilet seat.
Problem was, they were installed so high on the wall that, at five feet tall, I would have needed a ladder to use them.
2) At least you're still not hanging out in out Cornerstone. And to your oh-so-PC readers: Dan was not making assumptions. The place is crazy hetero. I mean, it's too hetero for me, and *I'm* hetero.
@14 that's what i wonder about these taller urinals -- what of kids & shorter people. Also that urinal you describe? Sounds like it would be really irritating trying to get your clothes out of the way -- if a skirt, hike it up high enough, if pants, do you have a wide enough stance *cough* once you drop trou to straddle, or do you have to take a leg out?
I never thought of urinals as art until I stumbled into an antique bathroom at Mumford Hall at UIUC. I don't know if it's still there, or if it was renovated, but at the time it was done completely in 1920's original fixtures, tiles and such.
They were truly lovely works of porcelain... FOR ME TO PEE ON.
They used to have the same ones next to the newsstand upstairs at the UW HUB. Yep...a little awkward; but mostly 'cause you didn't want to pee on the next guy's shoes.
Having spent much time in the not-so-developed parts of Asia, and peed into many a squatty (clean and not so much), and spent time in the wilderness and stuck in really, really bad accident- driven traffic jams, GET OVER IT! Oh, my foot touched yours! Yeah, I've recruited people to hold a blanket up so I can pee without the whole world seeing my business! And I've flushed a "toilet" using a scoop of water from a rain-fed trough (and the fact that there was even a place for me to squat in private was a welcome refuge)! Protip...heels are your best friend when squatting because they put you in a more comfortable position, and skirts are god's gift in nasty bathrooms. Chew on that!
The ladies rooms at UMD are their own hell. Almost every toilet is self-flushing, but the sensors are cracked out and flush mid-pee. Sometimes it feels like half the toilet bowl has been sprayed on your bits.
The best, and most effective in terms of no-splash, was found in the Trocadero metro station in Paris: It was a ceramic wall. Perpendicular to the horizontal, with a trough at the bottom. The pee hit the wall at the perfect angle to NOT SPLASH. Every other urinal I've seen does not achieve this. Although the troughs, mentioned by BEG @13, come close.
The urinals Dan posted about look absolutely awful in terms of all functionality. There would be mess under them every day. Bleh.
I would think there might be splashage issues, and what about when you have a bit of--what was it?--sement blockage, and you get some side spray? Gads, sitting down is sounding better all the time...
Urinals, gang showers... these were not designed and built by a lovely architect but by a lazy plumber.
Although I do those giant, floor-to-chin units from my elementary school days.
You know, us girls have solved this completely...
(My favorites are the pics I've seen of troughs... literal urinal troughs... at stadiums, maybe? The hole-in-the-floor is another fave. So are the self flushing ones -- that flush every 10 minutes regardless & wash down the whole stall...)
Problem was, they were installed so high on the wall that, at five feet tall, I would have needed a ladder to use them.
unless your dick is only a half an inch long why would you have to straddle the thing?
2) At least you're still not hanging out in out Cornerstone. And to your oh-so-PC readers: Dan was not making assumptions. The place is crazy hetero. I mean, it's too hetero for me, and *I'm* hetero.
Geeze.
Fremont Oktoberfest has a Honey Bucket version of the trough, which is (creepily) sponsored by The Stranger
They were truly lovely works of porcelain... FOR ME TO PEE ON.
A picture like that must cause nightmares for pee-shy guys.
No thanks, I'll sit. Besides, toilet seats are not really that dirty.
The urinals Dan posted about look absolutely awful in terms of all functionality. There would be mess under them every day. Bleh.