When I joined the Navy in 1970 the restroom, (head), on ship had a large stainless steal trough for urinating. It was large enough for 20 guys to pee into it and it flowed into a single drain. Someone could convert one toilet into a similar system that would, technically, act as one urinal.
“Someone could convert one toilet into a similar system that would, technically, act as one urinal.”
Actually, no. Along about 1990 all the big companies went from urinals right next to each other with no partitions to awkwardly bolting a privacy panel between them. (I was actually peeing one day when a workman came in with partitions for installation.) I’m not sure what drove the change but since then I have NEVER been in a company bathroom that had more than one urinal where there wasn’t a panel between them. Initially, at the company where I was, I thought it was an ego protector to shield lightly built managers from the big honkers who worked for them. But this change has been so universal in Florida, including shopping centers, doctor’s offices and every public building that I suspect it has been mandated by law. (In the late ‘50’s I remember a primary school bathroom where the urinals, with no partitions where so far off the ground most of us had to stand on tiptoe. Since it was built as a primary school and not a barracks, I have to wonder what went through their minds to put them at adult heights.)
In the 1980’s in a million square foot facility there was one bathroom with an entire wall of 20 urinals with no partitions separating them. That seemed to be the norm. But that was when the bulk of people working had been in the military. As time moved on those who had the military “experience” were fewer and fewer until they became the exception. That might be part of it.
Given that we now have “trans” people I think a little separation is a good thing. I just wish there was less regulation so that companies could do what seemed logical than what it “required.”