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Two queueing theorists of Ghent University investigated why queues at restrooms are invariably longer for ladies than for men. Time and time again. What are the main causes for this disparity? And how can it be overcome? Moving to unisex toilets, it appears from this study, may reduce waiting times for women from over 6 minutes to less than a minute and a half. Already a symbol for transgender equality, unisex toilets can hence boast excellent figures when it comes to reducing waiting times. Or, how transgender-friendliness may help in battling female-unfriendly toilet culture.
It turns out there are three main causes for the difference in waiting time between men and women. A first factor explaining why women wait longer is that the net number of toilets for women is smaller than that for men. This is because the total surface area is often divided equally while a toilet cabin inevitably takes up more space than a urinal. Overall, an average toilet area can accommodate 20 to 30 percent more toilets for men (urinals + cabins) than for women.
A second reason is that according to scientific studies women spend one and a half up to two times as long on the toilet. The reasons are mostly practical. In contrast to a urinal, a door must be opened and closed twice, a toilet seat needs cleaning, and more and more difficult clothes have to be taken off and on. This results in an average time spent at the toilet of 1 minute for men and 1 minute and 30 seconds for women.
A third factor is the overall activity at the restroom. As long as it's not too busy, the overall effect of ladies having a smaller number of toilets and spending more time on those toilets does not lead to long queues. However when for example everybody heads home, more women arrive at the toilets than the system can handle. This condition amplifies the above effects and results in outrageous waiting times for women.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-lengths-restroom.html
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @07:45PM (1 child)
As noted in the summary, women wait longer than men because they prefer to do so. Specifically, they aren't willing to sacrifice privacy for speed. There have been past studies to see if women would be willing to use urinals-equivalents, and they found that women as a whole were not willing to. So in other words, women as a whole (noting of course than any individual woman would disagree) have decided they would rather wait in long queues than sacrifice some of their privacy.
What goads me is that they want their cake (have privacy) and they want to eat it too (have faster queues). They can get that by having more bathroom facilities (be allocated more space)... but then in my mind that is unfair to men in that they'll get less bathroom space (they sacrificed privacy, but not gain the benefit of faster queues because they didn't whine enough).
We'll see if we end up in the situation with women getting the best of both worlds, and men getting the worst of both worlds.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday July 17 2017, @09:45PM
How badly did they need to go?