On the preference of urinals

It is important to appreciate that there are many models of the placement of urinals in different places, to acquaint ourselves with a few:

In SIES college, Sion and Wonder Mall, Thane.


At Nirmal Lifestyles, Mulund.


At R-Mall, Mulund and most railway stations.


At the British Council Library, Nariman Point.


Vasant Vihar High School, Thane


There are many idiosyncrasies of the urinals in each location, which will displace the simple factors that come into play while choosing of a suitable urinal (which will come later). For example, Wonder Mall has really minuscule urinals with no partitions, which means it is easy to see the endowments of your neighbors. The one at Nirmal Lifestyles has inconveniently positioned clogged ones, with an accumulation of urine, and fogged glass partitions, which make you uncomfortable and nervous even though you cannot see anything clearly. This is one place where you simply cannot afford to be uncomfortable and nervous. The ones at railway stations have marble partitions, but no cups, just drains, which means that you have to be mindful of urine spray from the neighboring cubicle landing on your feet. The ones at SIES are probably the most idiosyncratic. The cups are there, but the pipes leading them to the drain is absent, which means the urine travels down the bottom of the cup and falls right back onto your shoes. More often than not, these urinals are filled, making you use the toilet and force you to contribute to the general mess.

However, these idiosyncrasies apart, there are a few factors that are taken into consideration while making a choice.

1) The already occupied urinals
2) The probability of subsequent occupation
3) Being “grouped” with one person (two guys together in an otherwise empty urinal, makes a difference if there are many like at R-mall)
4) The chances of being “grouped” on subsequent occupation
5) Conversation or any kind of peeking
6) Spray from beneath the partitions
7) Chances of bumping into another

After simplifying the factors and the models, the problem can more or less be reduced to the number of urinals in each row, and then be tackled accordingly.



Three urinals, offer limited choice, and therefore are not too problematic.
The problem of choice arises only when all the three stalls are empty, and when either end is occupied. As a rule, when there are three urinals, one always occupies an unoccupied end.



When it comes to four urinals, all other permutations and combinations amount to the same, and reduce your choice to what amounts to a single urinal, except in the case of all four stalls being empty, and one end being occupied.

Yet again, an unoccupied end should be preferred here. However, a problem arises when alternate stalls are occupied:



Getting the unoccupied end here would not be advised here as that would end you being grouped with a single person. Remember, two is company, three is a crowd.

Now is when this becomes interesting.
The unoccupied end is a very nice rule, and applies to most ways in which a row of five urinals can be occupied.



However, there are a few oddballs.



Two urinals side by side, and the other end taken. One would assume to leave an empty space in the middle. WRONG! Remember, you do not want to be grouped with anyone.

As long as possible, prefer to be a loner.



Its ok to be without a crowd or company. You are a freaking man, do not forget that.

Here is the most interesting problem.



You HAVE to be grouped with someone. But who? Using the urinal in the middle means that on subsequent occupation, you have twice the chance of being in a crowd compared to that of using the empty corner.

Now, based on this, figure out where to pee where you have more choice. Complications can arise when there are two unequal rows facing each other, like the Vasant Vihar High School urinal.

Now, a study to show which urinals are most used in practice. How do you find out which is the most used urinal? Look at the erosion or wear of the Naphthalene balls placed in the urinals, the one with the least wear is the least used urinal. Turns out that people prefer to use urinals that are placed in the middle of a row of urinals, for some weird reason. The last and the second last urinals in any row are the least used ones.

The theory totally contradicts reality, like any good theory should.