Methodological and Operational Problems

Difficulties in Obtaining Information

There were difficulties in obtaining information about the number, location, and amenities of bathrooms on campus. Despite the best efforts of the facilities management service desk, the university outsources the care of bathrooms to Best Janitorial, who were not available to contact. Furthermore, had I managed to get in contact with them, they would likely either not have a master list of bathrooms, or else would not divulge that information.

Because of this, the reported locations of bathrooms are a result of five years of learned experience with the Burnaby campus, combined with some personal footwork to confirm locations and amenities. This was very time- and energy-inefficient, and some bathrooms may have been overlooked. I tried to overcome this by asking students and staff in each building about the locations of bathrooms near them.

While most students and staff were friendly and helpful, I encountered quite a few staff who did not want their nearby bathrooms included in the project.

I also ran into difficulties when bathrooms were in enclosed or otherwise inaccessible areas, or if searching out a bathroom would take me into areas where students are prohibited (for example, Strand Hall and many areas of the science buildings). I had to rely on receptionists and passerby to obtain information about these bathrooms. This was not a large hinderance as far as the scope of this project, as my study area was defined as only those areas with publically accessible washrooms.

Obsolete Information

The photograph used for digitizing was taken in 2004. The Cornerstone retail building east of the campus was still under construction, and construction had not yet begun on the Arts and Social Sciences Complex and Blusson Hall. To counteract this, I digitized them into the landuse map as if they had been present at the time of the photograph.

Generalization of Information

Aerial Photography: Digitizing an aerial photograph resulted in the omission of the height of the buildings themselves, which means vertically aligned bathrooms were flattened into a single bathroom. Additionally, bathrooms on seperate floors give the impression of being on the same floor. Mapping bathrooms in 3D space would involve a far more complex mapping process than available to me. To counteract this, I tried to represent vertically aligned bathrooms by clustering them in the approximate location.

Landuse/Pathing: The landuse representation does not take into account walls and doors. For example, in some areas it is impossible to get from a building to an adjacent courtyard (thank you, Arthur Erickson). The friction of distance is represented to be far more forgiving than it is in reality.

Operational Problems

The .1m resolution I used initially (taken from the aerial photograph) was far too precise, and it would have been more time effective to use a resolution of .5m or 1m. Using a very precise resolution resulted in quite a few headaches as the project grew larger and more cumbersome.

In hindsight, I would not have used a friction value of at least 5 or 10 for high-traffic pathways. It disproportionately represented the ease of travelling those corridors. For example, it made it seem like walking from the north end of the RCB building (or from the sixth floor of the library) to the Academic Quadrangle was a feasible solution, when in reality someone seeking a gender neutral washroom would have become frustrated with the many flights of stairs and the multitude of gendered washrooms on their way.

Improvements for Further Projects

This project would greatly benefit from someone who had the time AND ability to find and document each bathroom on campus. In two hours, I likely only found the locations of three quarters of the bathrooms.

A more sophisticated analysis could be achieved by taking in to account doors and walls in the friction distance.

A more meaningful analysis could be achieved by noting how many stalls are in each bathroom and the occurence of other facilities than toilets, i.e. baby change tables, body washing stations, feminine hygiene product and condom dispensers, and showers.