In public places, doors often do not go all the way to the floor. There’s a very specific reason for this design… And it’s not just to pass toilet paper to the next person.
Airports, train stations, schools, cinemas… If you look closely, the toilet doors in these public places often don’t go all the way to the floor. When you’re inside, you can see your feet sticking out. This may seem surprising, sometimes embarrassing, particularly for reasons of privacy, but it is not a design chosen at random. For everyone, this hole at the bottom of the toilet cubicles is practical for asking your neighbor for paper in case of shortage or for checking that there is no one in the cubicle and that it is therefore available.
That being said, there are many other reasons for this choice. For example, this opening under the door is very convenient for quickly getting rid of bad odors. They will thus spread more easily in the air rather than remaining stuck between four walls, making the passage of the next user more pleasant. For employees who clean the toilets, this also greatly facilitates mopping, which is often done several times a day.
On the side of construction companies, less material means less cost. Shortened doors can also be a form of protection against certain illegal practices such as dealing, sexual activity in public places or vandalism. So many advantages. However, this is still not the main reason.
It is, in fact, above all for a question of security that the doors of public offices are so short, as the company website explains, portable toilets. Since the doors do not go all the way to the ground, this can make it easier to help a person who has locked themselves in it by mistake or who is not feeling well. This space can, for example, make it possible to identify whether a person has fainted or felt unwell. In the event of a fire, this opening also helps to evacuate more easily.
More unlikely, people would tend to be quicker to use the toilets when they are not completely closed, limiting queues in public places. “When people feel like others can listen to their needs so easily, they tend to rush,” the site explains.
According to a study IFOP for Diogene France, carried out online in April 2021 with a sample of 1010 French adults, 47% of men and 61% of women said they had already been embarrassed to relieve themselves in public toilets. This justification therefore does not seem so surprising after all.