TIL occupied indicators are not standard in the rest of the world.
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In the US just peer through the crack between the door and the wall. Ensure solid eye contact with the current occupant. Determine how much time they've left. Adjust plan accordingly.
I always reach under the stalls to grab their ankles. Scaring the shit out of them speeds things up
You shouldn't do that.
The doors are deliberately designed to have a large gap on the bottom, so you can poke your head through. This is the correct way of doing it.
We have these for years in Europe

Where is the 6 in gap between the door and stall??
cries in imperial units
I'm middle aged and I don't recall a time in my life when vacant/occupied indicators weren't on all public toilets.
They do. Or at least, here in Europe they do. Seems rather absurd there'd be a place where they don't.
Bear in mind the US also has massive gaps in their public toilet doors. They do seem to be struggling. Then again I'm from the UK, so... Yeah. Send help.
They do in the UK - where are you?
Yeah I don't think I've ever seen one without, but being red-green colour blind I wish most didn't only use those colours
Because in the US you can usually see the person shitting through the ridiculous gaps in the stalls.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Yeah here in Japan most places have a red and blue indicator that moves with the lock. Bidets and toilet seat sanitizers are also pretty standard in any decently modernized areas. We kinda win when it comes to bathrooms.
Australia checking in, those are definitely a thing here
Cost. The gaps in most NA stalls are so big you will know whether it's occupied anyway just by walking past.
Was a bit of a shock when I went to Japan and all the stalls are just small rooms within the restroom. It was nice. Bidet game is on point too.
Americans, isn't it?
Next they realise that toilets shouldn't have massive gaps around and under the doors.
Y'all are living with prison toilets.
I've never seen one without.
In 'merica, we love to grab the door and shake it or look through the 2 inch gap to check if it's occupied 🇺🇲
Don't forget to also knock loudly and yell "IS ANYBODY IN THERE???"
Uh, like if the door’s closed it’s more than likely occupied.
Useless if the door swings shut by default, likely from poor horizontal alignment.
You guys don't have an indicator near the door handle?? It's super common in the Netherlands. Almost every toilet has a small indicator, except for maybe some old doors the owners didn't replace, but all else always shows if it's occupied or not (not that people won't try anyway even if red for occupied).
I'm genuinely curious to know where in the world you live. I would be horrified if someone was peeking under the stalls or bothering people by knocking on the doors.
When I frequented small cafés before the epidemic lockdown, it was typical in San Francisco to get frequent impatient door-knockers.
Part of the problem is the lack of publicly available restroom facilities. Shopping malls often might have two restroom pairs, usually at the food court and by the movie theater, and then one each at thr major department stores, typically hidden by the changing rooms.
I cannot say how this compares to other towns or other nations, but designing public lots in The Sims 2, I quickly learned to make sure there were facilities a short walk from everywhere. (Also skip the sinks and install showers, since sims dress and undress with a quick spin)
I just leave the door open, that way everyone knows I'm in there. I even wave at the kids.
Do your toilets not have these things:

Some do. Most are too cheap to bother.
In my experience most do? Maybe the US is different from everywhere else?
Probably.
Most stalls are bolted together pieces of cheap metal with the most basic latch you can imagine. If an indicator adds 10 cents to the cost it’s not going to happen.
The US is cheap. We even famously have large gaps between the door/stall panels. I can only imagine it is to accommodate temperature/humidity changes so that they don't jam.
Nicer places sometimes have actual deadbolt locks connected to a vacant/occupied indicator on the exterior. But it is rare. Usually it's just a gapped stall with a sliding lock that will often not even line up correctly without wiggling the door.
In some instances I have had to use my gym key fob in place of the missing sliding mechanism to secure the door.
Basically they skimp like mad on this basic infrastructure because they don't care. Whatever companies make the standard shitty metal toilet cubicles in the US have a lot to answer for.
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