(Spoiler alert: North America loses)

Throughout Europe I noticed this lovely thing about the public bathrooms – they weren’t as “public” as the bathrooms back home.  I remember being in Nandos and the Dublin Airport bathroom and marvelling at the fact that when the door was shut it was completely enclosed except for the obligatory gap at the bottom.

It was something I wanted to remark on, but I didn’t know how.  But now I don’t have to, because Buzzfeed’s done it for me:

America, Why Are There Huge Gaps At The Edge Of Your Toilet Doors?

Some places have single bathrooms, but the majority of public bathrooms are stalls and those stalls have gaps around the door.  There’s room at the bottom for people to look for feet (to see if a stall is occupied), but sometimes people don’t want to bend down and look – they’d rather make awkward eye contact through the gap.  It’s never for very long and most of the time they look away really quickly.  Sometimes it’s by accident – your eye wanders around while you wait for a stall to become free.  But it’s something that doesn’t need to happen.

Now that I’ve been to Europe and seen the future, I can’t help but wonder: when will our bathrooms become more civilized?