Interesting. It's a constant reminder

You shouldn't be touching any handles upon exiting a bathroom.
The door should be push to exit, so you can open it by pushing with your elbow.
- I prefer airport style bathroom entry and exits .... there is no door, just a walkway that gives privacy to the entry so that you can't see inside from the hallway.
  
  Takes up more space though
- That would be ideal. I've also seen a few with weirdly discrete foot pedals. I like that idea, although the ones I've encountered haven't exactly nailed the design.
  
  I just use a paper towel to grab the handle (if there’s no foot pedal). What’s annoying is when there’s no trash can near the door to toss the paper towel while exiting.
  
  My place of work installed those foot pedals around COVID time, and they work just fine.
  I've also seen the ones that have the pull handle, plus the little piece that extends upwards so you can use your forearm to pull the door open.
  
  Haven't seen that.
  You can also push a door open with a foot as you take a step forward.
  It's trickier than using an elbow, as it involves the balancing act of putting your weight on the door, which will give way, before allowing your foot to actually land. Do it wrong or with a door that's much lighter than you thought, and you fall over as you deliberately shift your weight off the one foot you're still standing on :D
  I initially started doing it to push open doors while holding stuff with my hands, but now I kinda just walk into doors and open them with a foot as I do.
- That might not be up to fire standards demanding doors in the hallway to be opened to the inside of the room.
  
  Is that a thing?
  Feels like something door closers make irrelevant.
  You'd think fire code would require exit always be push, because that makes evacuating smoother.
  If you have a bunch of people wanting to go through a door, you do not want them the be pull.
  Even while orderly, requiring a crowd to step back to provide the space for the doors to open is not ideal.
- I'm pretty sure there's regulations against that, so you're not pushing a door into a random passer by as you're exiting the bathroom.
  The foot hook handle thing is my preferred method.
- I'm fond of the paper method. Paper barrier to protect me from the gross handle.
- Or foot
- I think the door opening into a main area is not ideal. Like a restaurant with somebody carrying food having to swerve a bathroom door that opened unexpectedly.

I would bet good money that both door handles are equally filthy, by nature of it being a school. Kids are walking talking germ incubators. We all are, but kids especially. And that's before we even get to the kids who are intentionally malicious little bastards -- I guarantee you, in some school districts, with some kids, signs like these would just be asking for an aspiring Poo-casso to smear their shit on the door handles.
- The bottom one might be dirtier, with kids specifically wanting to “soil” it because that is “so funny”. And the group that does wash their hands don’t want to touch “the dirty one”.
  
  I'd put good money on your take.
  
  I would argue that the bottom would be dirtier, not because of kids reflex to be contrarian, but because human nature pushes people to prioritize themselves even at the cost of society. They may not wash THEIR hands, but they are not going to touch other dirty peoples handle.
- Poo-casso
  This got me.

If they’re going to break the rule about washing hands they’re not going to follow the door handle one either.
- I'll just lick both handles to be safe
  
  ⬆️ Found patient zero, everyone.

Here's an idea:
The sinks should be outside the bathroom.
That way, you can wash your hands after touching the dirty door, and everyone in the hallway can see if you don't wash your hands.
- Are the doors even necessary? Just put a sharp left turn tiny hallway for privacy, blocks out everything but sound - most public bathrooms have them already
  
  blocks out everything but sound
  You've never heard the sounds my coworker makes on the toilet.
  
  The smell tho.
  Plus school bathrooms tend to be dirty.
  
  The sound is the worst part, I wish the bathroom in my office had music or something so I don't have to hear every detail of whomever is disemboweling themselves in the next stall over.
- I still don't want to touch a handle where it's guaranteed that people who just took a shit without washing their hands have touched, even if I'm about to wash my hands right after.
  We should just all use those foot handles. Solves pretty much everything, but why are they so rare?
  
  Cause they trap disabled people inside the bathroom.
- That...makes sense to me. Not only would you need one set of sinks, you wouldn't need to go into the shit and piss room if you just want to wash your hands.

I recall there was a story from Predictably Irrational where the experimenters were trying to figure out how to get participants to avoid double-dipping tortilla chips.
Along with a control condition, they tried setting up a sign that said "NO DOUBLE DIPPING", and I think they also tried paying people or getting them to promise not to double dip, stuff like that.
The thing they found most successful was to set up two bowls of dip: One labeled "For double-dipping", and one "Not for double-dipping".
They supposed that once they had to do a physical action where they sorted themselves according to "what kind of person they are", they wanted all of their visible actions to be consistent with that.
- Interesting experiment but who the fuck doesn't just eat the whole chip at once?
  
  Double dippers, apparently.
  
  "Restaurant style" chips are enormous. Far too big to shove in your mouth at once.
  
  I like a big salsa to chip ratio, so I break the chip into smaller pieces (usually 2) and dip/scoop each one. No double dip, good salsa to chip ratio.
- It's been a long time but I recall a study featured on Freakonomics where a national park tried different signs to get people to not steal rocks. Signs like, "Taking rocks hurts the ecosystem" and "Taking rocks is a crime."
  The only effective one was something along the lines of, "A million people visit this park every year and leave things alone." Suggesting that telling people to do the right thing is less effective than peer pressure.
  
  On the one hand, it’s depressing because people seem to care more about fitting in than being rational.
  But on the other hand, it’s reassuring that we’re so eager to solve things collaboratively that we’re willing to set aside our own personal opinions.
  Our relentless obsession with social connection will either be the thing that kills us or the thing that saves us. And I honestly have NO idea which.

I still wouldn't trust either handle. People are assholes.
- There are some folk who I went to school with I can see rubbing their assholes on the handles because "fuck you, you're a sign not a cop". I'm sure there's a name for that disorder.
  
  Oppositional Defiance Disorder, I have a coworker like this. It's exhausting.

Literally scrolling while pooping at work and someone came in, did their thing and left without hand washing. These idiots walk among us.
- I see it happen all too often. People suck.

there should be a guy in every bathroom who body slams you into the pavement if you don’t wash your hands for 20 seconds with ~~warm~~ soap and water
- Per the CDC
  Use your preferred water temperature – cold or warm – to wash your hands. Warm and cold water remove the same number of germs from your hands. The water helps create soap lather that removes germs from your skin when you wash your hands. Water itself does not usually kill germs; to kill germs, water would need to be hot enough to scald your hands.
  If you're like me and hate warm water
  
  this whole time i had no idea..... thank you. i'll update the suggestion in light of this new information

This problem is solved by having paper towels (air dryers suck) and placing the paper towel trash bin next to the door so that you can use your hand-full of towels as a barrier between the handle and throw the towels away as you leave.
- Or motorized door, or no door at all, this clearly isn't a house, just have an S shaped passage. Voila, way fewer sick people on your building. It quickly pays for itself. And without reminding everyone on every day of how gross humans are.
  
  it seems like a good idea to me, but my question is would it lead to more poop particles circulating more widely throughout the building than without a door? ig airports, etc seem fine with it so it must not be a big problem?
- also a foot handle

Me: grabs both handles
- Schrodinger's washed hands

I don't believe there is good in human nature, so I'm going to remain grossed out by both handles.
- Embrace the evil, double-dip both handles
  
  Double-dick both handles?

They should put 110V through the top one.

first off, the clean handle should be on top. the nasty handle shouldn't drip onto the clean handle.
second, as you are leaving a public bathroom, reach under your shirt/jacket (hopefully something untucked. ) use the fabric as a barrier for your hand and grab the handle with the front of the shirt/jacket.
- If you are lucky enough to have a paper towel dispenser, dry your hands with one, use it to open the door, then prop it open with a foot while you throw away the paper towel
- But now you have dry urine smeared over your sleeves.
  Better than on my hands, but...
  
  i didnt say sleeves. the underside of the bottom of your shirt. or go to a haberdashery and get yourself a hanky.
- I just open it with my feet. I helps with keeping by thighs flexible too.
  
  I almost exclusively flush with my feet in public bathrooms
- What is there to drip? Y’all pissing all over your hands or something?
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEhs5NuHAa4

Someone who's too fuckin lazy to wash their hands isn't gonna take the time to read anything in public.
- Like a JRPG, the choice is an illusion.
  The real answer is to use a paper towel to open the door.
  
  Since 2020 I haven’t touched a door handle in public. Because that’s when I realized just how backward some people are (I’d managed to avoid learning that prior). I wrap my sweatshirt around my hand to open them, now. In the summer I have paper towels in my pocket.

- I use paper towel and also use hand sanitizer to make sure no germs get through. I fucking hate public bathrooms.

I saw shit smeared on a bathroom door the other day, hand dryers only, no paper towels, it was so gross.

Which handle is for opening the door with my (washed) prehensile pp?

I like public restroom doors that have a handle like protrusion down near the bottom for your foot

At least I know the top one is sanitized.

Just get the foot door opener thing I love those things

Based on the differences in color for each handle it makes me wonder if the one for not washing your hands is a different material. Maybe an antimicrobial metal like a copper alloy.

And the reason school bathrooms can’t just have kitchen doors that you can back into to open from either direction?
- Newer bathrooms here just don't have doors. Just two right angles. Can't see in from the outside, but don't need to touch a door handle.
  It's perfect.

Instructions unclear, genitalia stuck in the lower door handle. Send HALP

My germaphobia is so triggered
🤮
I'd have to use a paper towel all the time, to open doors, and also use hand sanitizer to clean my hands. I'm that germaphobic.
I hate public bathrooms. HATE in bold

This is a game theory scenario:
I’m too lazy too lazy to wash my hands or don’t feel it’s necessary. Upon encountering this door I see both handles and decide to follow their instructions and open the door for unwashed hands. My hands are now unspeakably filthy as filthy people following the signs have accumulated a ton of germs on this handle. I get sick.
I was my hands, follow the signs and use the washed handle. Unbeknownst to me some unwashed game theorists decided that obviously the handle for washed hands would be cleaner so they used it without actually washing their hands first. It’s now also filthy.
I didn’t wash my hands, I don’t give a fuck about signs, use the one most convenient for me.
- My hands are now unspeakably filthy as filthy people following the signs have accumulated a ton of germs on this handle. I get sick.
  Do you normally get sick when you touch a bathroom door handle? It's not like people choose not to wash their hands because there's a separate handle for it.
  
  Depends what you do next and how much germs or on the handle. Worst case scenario someone shat themselves and tried to clean themselves up and contaminated their hands. Didn’t wash up or didn’t wash enough and left fecal matter on the handle. You then exit the bathroom and go eat a burger or some finger food so as to transfer germs directly to the food entering your system.

This could easily be because the top handle is in a more convenient spot so everyone uses it and nobody uses the bottom one, I can’t think of a reason someone would be so inconsiderate as to not wash there hands but so altruistic that they go out of there way to use the inferior objectively worse handle. And human nature would say nobody is going to care about the slightly inconvenient option after it gets boring, don’t believe me? Then why do so many people choose the convenient less boring option of not washing their hands?
- The problem with this layout is that the shit from the top handle will drop onto the lower one, thus contaminating it as well.
- I think the two handles were just put in at different times, or are made of different materials.
  If the top handle was "dirty" the discoloration would be localized around the gripping point

This is probably a weird cropping, but I like to think this doors pushed open since there are no hinges on this side.

what if I do the opposite

Real boomer energy on these signs