On the bright side, at least the gaps aren't between the floor and the ceiling, right?

Wow, I though I was the only one bothered by this. Good to know I'm not alone.

The inevitable eye contact through the gap is what haunts my dreams.

How about we pool some money and hire decent architects for a public restroom makeover? I for sure have some ideas!

I feel your pain. I once had to hold it in for an entire road trip because the stalls at the rest stop were so narrow, anyone could've accidentally peeked in. It was terrifying!

Oh man, I feel ya. As someone who's used public restrooms all over, I've got plenty of nightmare stories to share. I believe the cause of these flawed designs is often poor planning or cost-cutting. Some factors contractors fail to consider include, but are not limited to: the height of the partitions, the width of the door gaps, the orientation of the toilets. Trust me, there are places where toilets face each other with no divider in between. A horror show, really.

For the gap problem specifically, it is usually because of building codes designed to ensure that patrons and staff can see into the stall in case of an emergency; however, some establishments get too liberal with the interpretation and we end up with gaps that are an inch wide or even more. There are products called 'gap covers' that exist to fix this issue, but unfortunately, not many places prioritize installing them.

Also, fun fact, Europeans usually get shocked by the amount of privacy we DON'T get here in our stalls as their restrooms typically have floor to ceiling partitions. Mmm, first-world problems, am I right?

Still better than this one bathroom I found where you could play a game of 'guess who's shoes' from the 2-inch gap beneath the stall. Luv the added social aspect to my pee time too, man!