Airport toilets are almost useless/ unhygenic for those carrying lugguage who wish to keep their luggage in range/view.
Cubicles are very often SMALLER than normal public cubicles. With luggage it is a performance trying to prevent baggage getting 'wet' on the floor, bumping into the bowl or dropping items. Who would have guessed that people in airports would have luggage?
Therefore cubicles should be large (similar to disabled) have a raised grid or shelf up off the wet floor, plenty of hooks and preferably a small handbasin & paper so you can wash and dry hands immediately before handling luggage (so not putting bacteria straight onto your handles).
Urinals should have hooks on the wall and a DRY high shelf in front plus adequate space between bays.
Doors should be designed so you can get in and out without touching disease-spreading handles - e.g. washroom has an "in" and an "out" door that opens in your direction of travel and has no latch and cubicle doors have some form of push- release from the inside.
Ideally there should be a small number of trolley-traps so people can enter with their trolley, dump, wash hands then leave. The exit door to open much as a fire escape by pushing the trolley against it.
If one is caught with an urgent call - "that cannot be recinded, not even questioned" - when alone with a trolley full, one is in dire straights.-- timbeau, Jan 18 2004 I'm thinking a more realistic idea would be toilet-friendly luggage, with a hole in the top, a tank inside, and perhaps a little screen to run around it.-- kropotkin, Jan 19 2004 I have a better solution, why not make a thousands of stalls that are 6' X 6' and staff it with a personal assistant who constantly cleans the room. in the stall there will be plenty of space so one can "repack" or even "refold" all the contents of thier luggage in complete confort.-- djp1970, Jan 19 2004 Nice idea, but I'm afraid airports won't implement it because it takes more space. It will be easier to convince them to leave the doors off the stalls, so you can "park" your luggage on the opposite wall and watch it while you are at work. That will save the cost of the doors and the Dept. of Homeland Paranoia just can send by an officer to check what is going on in the stalls. That also saves the cost of all the little cameras.-- kbecker, Jan 19 2004 [kbecker] Yeah, right...alot you could do if they did lift it while you were layin' one down!
"I've started, so I'll finish..."
[Unabubba] Like it...accompanied by music from 'flying trapese', 'In da Club', 'Take 5'...-- timbeau, Jan 20 2004 //alot you could do// At least you can later tell the friendly flight attendant at the ticket counter that someone may be flying with your luggage and that person will probably be lying about the question "Did you pack all your luggage yourself?". That will immediately trigger all kinds of security alarms and the airport will be closed until you have your luggage back.-- kbecker, Jan 20 2004 I agree.+-- nomadic_wonderer, Oct 26 2004 you could take such 'bio breaks' before picking up your luggage from the conveyor, or after checking it in.-- neilp, Oct 26 2004 Bun from me. +-- Nontaigne, Oct 26 2004 Kind of a "let's all" idea, isn't it? (See help file if you don't know what I'm talking about).-- krelnik, Oct 27 2004 no why don't we already do this? bun.-- FireElf, Jun 12 2006 What about married luggage carrying people? And why would luggage be carrying people in the first place? Agreed that airports won't go for it because of cost/space, but [timbeau] points out a problem in great need of resolution.-- Gamma48, Jun 10 2009 random, halfbakery