relief for the south side?

[cellio]

The city of Pittsburgh recently installed a high-tech pay toilet a few blocks from where I work. Some of my coworkers went to check it out today. One of them told me that when you pay your quarter and go in, you get a count-down so you can't stay in there all day. (I don't know if the door automatically opens at the end, or what. Actually, I'll bet I know -- the coworker told me that it hoses itself down after each use. That might be incentive to leave promptly.)

The timer is set for 20 minutes.

20 minutes? Who requires 20 minutes? I mean, I know people who would probably carry a six-pack in there, sit down, and process most or all of it in 20 minutes... maximizing the value of the money spent and all that, y'know.

I'm a bit dubious that this toilet will solve the problem it's intended to solve, which is lots of urination in the streets and alleys around a bunch of bars. I'd guess that the people who are too drunk or too inconsiderate to go back into the bar to use the toilet are also too drunk or inconsiderate (or cheap) to insert a quarter into a coin slot. But we'll see, I guess. It would be nice if it worked out.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

20 minutes is probably a worst-case scenario. I can imagine that maybe some handicapped folks might need that kind of time to remove/replace clothing and so forth to do their business. And who wants the door flying open on 'em....

The problem with a lot of bar toilets is that they're incredibly crowded, especially if you're female. I have seen *long* lines outside the womens' rooms in bars, dance clubs, and so on.

Sometimes if your'e on a pub crawl in a busy bar district you can also wait for quite some time to get into the next establishment. Meantime you're out in the cold and have processed quite a bit of beer....

Hell, I'm not even much of a bar patron anymore and I wish there were pay toilets around. I'm tired of wandering around a downtown business district somewhere and seeing sign after sign that says "no public restroom," "restrooms for customers only," etc.

[rectangularcat]

I've had one of those toilets give me a warning-going-into-cleaning-mode when I was in Paris right across the modern art museum. Traveling was not agreeing with me and well while I don't recall spending 20 minutes in there, boy was I glad to be wearing a long skirt and run away.

I really liked those toilets in Paris because it was the only place one could get a clean toilet with TP! I'm not picky on the cleanliness part but the TP sure is nice (I got used to carrying lots of tissues for my boyfriend and I over the course of the trip) Pleasant memories of him calling me in the ladies washroom begging for TP... oh the fun memories.

I should have done a loo of Europe photolog.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I remember the first one of those appearing over here, years ago... seem to remmber the timer was set for just 5 minutes. Take extra time to blow your nose or someting and whoosh, you're done for! 20 mins seems a tad excessive... they should have buttons maybe, one for "normal" another for "I'm going to be a while in here" - don't think they need a "hey, I might have time to finish my newspaper now" lol

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

San Francisco installed a number of automatic pay toilets several years ago. This article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/07/15/MN165182.DTL) discusses the results. I've never used one, and based on the article I don't feel hugely inclined to start. It sounds like the results have been "mixed" to say the least... and that if an area is suffering from a grunge problem, the toilet won't do much to change it either way.

[gigglefaerie.livejournal.com]

This is the third time so far in my friends list that the pay-toilet has been mentioned. I seriously doubt it will work for its intended use. More likely people will look at it as a new toy and eventually the novelty will wear off. The real test will be when the SS spectacular rolls around.