As I travel often and I have a "short pipe", I often need to go to a public bathroom.

I am not speaking about number 2 here, just the basic need.

In public men bathroom, when we go to pee, there are five occasions when we may be in contact with germs.
For each of these, a star ★ is given if there is a possibility of no contact.

1. The Door

No star if you need to put your hand on a door knob or to push the door. One ★if there is no door at all.

Public bathrooms with no doors are often found in airports.

No Star for this Bathroom Door
source

2. The Flush

No star if you need to manually action the flush, one ★ if the flush is automatic, or for a waterless urinal.

Most bathrooms these days have automatic flushes. But this is not the case in old gas stations.

3. The Tap

No star if you need to action the tap or taps manually, one ★ if the water flow starts automatically.

Automatic taps are more and more frequent, as they save water.

source

4. The Soap Dispenser

No star if it is necessary to put your hands on the soap dispenser, one ★ for an automatic soap dispenser.

This is usually the missing star for four ★ public bathrooms.

source

5. Drying your Hands

No star if you need to use a knob to dry your hands, one ★ for automatic air dryer.

In my opinion, the Dyson dryer is the best, although I have read somewhere that it disseminate airborne germs.

source

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Thirty years ago, most public bathrooms had no star. These days, the zero star public bathrooms, usually found in old gas stations, are much less frequent.

It is my experience that 5★/5 public bathrooms are mostly found in large airports.

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However, a greater number of ★s is not a guarantee that the bathroom is cleaner than another bathroom with less ★s, if it is not cleaned regularly.

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This is the first post in the BATHROOM SERIES.

If you have suggestion for other entries in the series, do not hesitate to give them in a comment.

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