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Can you find a bathroom when you need one?


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I guess this sort of goes along with the potty parity question but I felt was a different topic altogether. This question is mostly targeted at women but men can answer as well since it technically affects everyone. But the question is can you usually find a bathroom when you need one in most cases?

I feel this question is more relevant now in the age of Covid seeing as now lots of bathrooms are being closed, so maybe the question is were you able to find a bathroom before Covid when you needed one usually versus has that changed now?

I am glad to say that for the most part I haven't had a hard time finding a bathroom when I really need one when I am out in public. The only exception was that my recent new job where I don't have toilet access and have to hold it all day, which I think is especially frustrating because I was used to having instantaneous toilet access most of the time before that, which is why it is especially frustrating to now have go (Or rather not go!) without. But fortunately up until then it was usually not a problem for me to find a restroom when I really needed one, although there are plenty of exceptions over the years especially when I have visited crowded places like the city.

So what have everyone else's experiences been, have you been able to find a restroom when you need one or have you often got stuck holding it for a long time due to a lack of restroom availability?

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  • 2 weeks later...

In the old days it usually wasn't a problem finding a toilet when needed, though obviously I have had experiences when I couldn't. Now I just don't get out so much so I haven't used a pubic toilet other than at work since March but I do plan for not being able to and since I'm hardly going anywhere it hasn't been a problem. There have been a few walks in the woods were I got relief in the woods but I was pretty much expecting to do that from the start.

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Before covid I have usually been able to find a bathroom but during covid there was this one time when I decided to drive out to meet some friends in a park. My sleep schedule was all messed up and I woke up really late so all I had time to do in the morning was throw on clothes and do mouthwash, and I just skipped going to the bathroom. I had to pee, I had had a large mug of tea the night before, but I was in a hurry and I figured I would be at the fast food place where we're getting our food. I hadn't realized that only the drive through was open, but whatever, I wasn't desperate, just uncomfortable. It was a hot day my meal came with a large soda. I drank quite a bit of that in the car, and when we got to the park I tried to go but the restroom was closed. I figured I'd be able to go after the meet up and against my better judgement I drank the rest of the soda because it was hot out.

We were at the park for a couple hours before we left, and at this point I was growing desperate. I tried a few more places but they were all closed the guests, and the one that was open had the huge line. I ended up peeing into the soda cup, hunched over in my car since I knew I wasn't going to make it the hour home. There have been other times I've been on a road trip driving through a desert type place where I've been desperate but that's it besides this experience.

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So far i've noticed no differences whatsoever in terms of being able to find a bathroom in my area, and I live in one of the states that actually took COVID seriously as well.  Back in April I was actually able to stroll upstairs in an Ace Hardware to the employee area and use the bathrooms(there was no sign saying "employees only" and the actual employees didn't tell me to leave and those were the only bathrooms I could find in the store, so I figured it would be OK) and nobody seemed to care.

 

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"I’ve been forced to travel a lot during the pandemic. I was really worried the first time we had to make the 10 hour trip, thinking I’d have to pee at the side of the road. It was unfounded. All the restrooms were open.

In all my trips since then I’ve only been to one place where the restrooms were closed. It was a Taco Bell. I didn’t have to pee at the time lol."

Barely left the house or gone anywhere lately but one of the other cruel ironies of the timing of my job is that many of the parks that I went to actually did have restrooms that normally would have been open but because of the damn pandemic, yeah, terrible timing for me :P.

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On 8/22/2020 at 10:58 PM, bushes said:

In the old days it usually wasn't a problem finding a toilet when needed, though obviously I have had experiences when I couldn't. Now I just don't get out so much so I haven't used a pubic toilet other than at work since March but I do plan for not being able to and since I'm hardly going anywhere it hasn't been a problem. There have been a few walks in the woods were I got relief in the woods but I was pretty much expecting to do that from the start.

Same with me. 

15 hours ago, PrincessPeeach said:

I’ve been forced to travel a lot during the pandemic. I was really worried the first time we had to make the 10 hour trip, thinking I’d have to pee at the side of the road. It was unfounded. All the restrooms were open.

In all my trips since then I’ve only been to one place where the restrooms were closed. It was a Taco Bell. I didn’t have to pee at the time lol. 

I had expectations that I'd have to pee at the side of the road too but it was more of a naïve hope rather than a worry. 

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I struggled with that even before covid, because I can't hold for long time and have to pee so often. And in my town all public bathrooms are closed after 10PM and you can find a bathroom only at bars, clubs, a few gas stations and hotels. I had quite a few genuine wetting accidents due to this problem already in the past and now due to covid it's even harder to find a public bathroom during night and even during the day was a problem in past months when lots of places were closed.

The other place where I often struggle to find a bathroom is on highways, because gas stations and rest stops are far apart and due to Murphy law you always get desperate when you just past one and have to hold it until the next one comes. If the next one is closed, I have a real problem.

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"The other place where I often struggle to find a bathroom is on highways, because gas stations and rest stops are far apart and due to Murphy law you always get desperate when you just past one and have to hold it until the next one comes. If the next one is closed, I have a real problem."

My mom often told me that when she was younger they used to have rest stops every couple of exits on a major highway that we use to have near us but now they don't have anything like that at all and you really have to go into the towns and cities if you want to find a rest stop. Now the only place that you really find rest stops are on long highways where you have many miles traveling unimpeded with relatively few exits like if you are going upstate or something like that. But on regular highways you don't really see rest stops anywhere, at least not by me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I generally could. I've actually been somewhat spoiled with this. I did visit a small beach town that had most restrooms closed, but that was because of a drought a few years ago (ugh, California sucks). I have kind of a small bladder and anxiety, so I have to plan this stuff out well and/ or just be kind of dehydrated. I'm a germaphobe so I prefer to avoid public restrooms, but sometimes I just can't.

Now with COVID, my germ phobia is heightened and I just don't go out at all except for work. I don't use the restrooms at work, but my shifts are usually 5 hours, so it's not a big deal. I think more restrooms are opening up in my town, when it was a problem for many people before. I actually disagree with closing restrooms; I know COVID is a concern, but I feel like this is causing more problems than solving them. I feel for people who have health issues who NEED access to restrooms but can't, or people who are homeless. Why can't they just be cleaned regularly?

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42 minutes ago, 33applepies said:

I generally could. I've actually been somewhat spoiled with this. I did visit a small beach town that had most restrooms closed, but that was because of a drought a few years ago (ugh, California sucks). I have kind of a small bladder and anxiety, so I have to plan this stuff out well and/ or just be kind of dehydrated. I'm a germaphobe so I prefer to avoid public restrooms, but sometimes I just can't.

Now with COVID, my germ phobia is heightened and I just don't go out at all except for work. I don't use the restrooms at work, but my shifts are usually 5 hours, so it's not a big deal. I think more restrooms are opening up in my town, when it was a problem for many people before. I actually disagree with closing restrooms; I know COVID is a concern, but I feel like this is causing more problems than solving them. I feel for people who have health issues who NEED access to restrooms but can't, or people who are homeless. Why can't they just be cleaned regularly?

From what I gather, COVID is usually spread via air droplets rather then via touching surfaces, so cleaning unfortunately won't prevent air particles from sticking around for a bit.

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Guest shortmetalboi

I have one experience of not being able to find a bathroom that might be interesting. 

I've said on here a couple times that I'm a musician and I've done a few tours.  One of the early ones we played a venue that was very very old.  I was told it was over 100 years old.  The drive was about 6 hours. 

I'm usually really careful and responsible about what liquids I consume on the road because I don't like pissing in bottles or being uncomfortable so the drive wasn't a big deal, however there were a few complications.

This drive was SUPPOSED to be 4 hours, but it was 6.5 with traffic and such.  THEN when we got to this old-ass venue, they didn't have a bathroom, and the closest store with a public bathroom was 2 blocks away uphill.  I was kinda desperate when we got there and decided to just run into the woods and go.  It was a VERY long stream haha  

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6 hours ago, LifeIsStrange said:

From what I gather, COVID is usually spread via air droplets rather then via touching surfaces, so cleaning unfortunately won't prevent air particles from sticking around for a bit.

I get that, I just feel it's cruel to close them down, more so for the groups of people I mentioned. Not having access to a restroom also causes health problems. I mean, people shouldn't be out to begin with anyway, but sometimes you can't avoid it. I know there's no way to enforce masks in a bathroom, but wouldn't wearing a mask lower this risk?

I mean, keep in mind I'm avoiding public restrooms, but that's my choice. I'm also not saying ALL stores and venues should have them, but there should be some available. Rest stops for example shouldn't be closed imo.

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9 minutes ago, 33applepies said:

I get that, I just feel it's cruel to close them down, more so for the groups of people I mentioned. Not having access to a restroom also causes health problems. I mean, people shouldn't be out to begin with anyway, but sometimes you can't avoid it. I know there's no way to enforce masks in a bathroom, but wouldn't wearing a mask lower this risk?

I mean, keep in mind I'm avoiding public restrooms, but that's my choice. I'm also not saying ALL stores and venues should have them, but there should be some available. Rest stops for example shouldn't be closed imo.

Yeah I don't see the point in closing them down either.

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  • 4 months later...

I knew I had started this topic before and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. One of the specific things that I was thinking about was the fact that although women's bathrooms are often provided it's often a far from adequate amount making it impossible for a large number of women to use them in a timely manner meaning that often women have to lose out on going to the bathroom. So even in a situation where bathrooms are available for women by having not nearly enough I think that that's almost the same as not giving women a bathroom at all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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