NYC plans self-cleaning public bathrooms across the city
www.timeout.com
Because finding a bathroom shouldn’t be this hard.

New modular, self-cleaning public bathrooms could soon pop up across the city.

    • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
      8·
      2 hours ago

      I’ve used these in San Francisco and Colorado Springs. You press a button to open the door, then once inside another button to lock it. You then have up to 5 minutes to do your business before the door will open again iirc. Toilet paper is carefully rationed out and dispensed. Once you are done and leave the door will close behind you and sprayers pop out pretty much everywhere, washing down every single surface. Sometimes the toilet also folds up for a more thorough cleaning of the seat. This means they’re always a little wet inside, but also remarkably clean. SF in particular really impressed me with these, I expected them to be absolutely disgusting and tried my best to avoid them until I had no choice. The US needs public toilets, and assuming the maintenance costs are low enough the self cleaning ones really aren’t as bad as an unattended public toilet sounds on the surface.

  • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
    30·
    7 hours ago

    Saw these in Paris while visiting. Always thought that every major city should have them. Was hella convenient!

    Another W for Mamdani.

  • otacon239@lemmy.world
    1052·
    11 hours ago

    What?! Is he trying to improve the lives of those that don’t normally have easy bathroom access? How dare he! Government money should be a spent on improving his self image and ego!

    • 0ops@piefed.zipEnglish
      4·
      5 hours ago

      Think of how many yacht bathrooms could’ve been remodeled with that money. Probably just one, maybe, but still.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
      71·
      6 hours ago

      I don’t get it. couldn’t they just beat the homeless people who piss in alleys? or like couldn’t they round them up and send them to work somewhere and provide housing and a bare minimum amount of food? why are my tax dollars being spent on washrooms that I’ll probably find conveniently available a few times in the next year or so?

      • avg repub opinion
    • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
      66·
      11 hours ago

      Not just those who don’t normally have easy access. It’s a great boon for normal people out and about and tourists. It’s just an easy across the board win that improves literally everyone’s lives.

      • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        23·
        10 hours ago

        As a tourist to many large cities… this would be amazing. Nothing worse than being out and away from your hotel and suddenly you have to find a restroom, and there’s none around.

        Just a tip, I’ve had a lot of success just walking into a nearby hotel and using their lobby restroom. It probably helps that I’m white and middle aged and I’m comfortable entering a place like I should be there (and I’m usually dressed ‘business casual’).

        • LePoisson@lemmy.world
          8·
          8 hours ago

          Yeah pro tip as a white guy you can literally just walk in anywhere if you’re dressed nicely and act like you belong. It’s wild. Also if you say something with enough conviction that’s pretty much all you need to do for people to believe you.

          I’d never use my powers for bad but I’ve accidentally wandered into areas there were definitely off limits at like a concert venue or sports arena. It really underlined how distressingly easy it can be to con people.

    • Soup@lemmy.world
      7·
      9 hours ago

      Conservatives must be losing it trying to figure out whether they should be against public defecation or for it.

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
    21·
    5 hours ago

    We have several types around in larger Helsinki, they are OK. And free. Of course they still require maintenance, but having been in cities that have no public toilets at all, this is simply a Good Thing.

    Another commenter was complaining about certain evil extra features, but apparently not all manufacturers do that, case in point above.

  • JackDark@lemmy.world
    10·
    11 hours ago

    I was hoping to read more about the self cleaning process, but it sounds like it’s just an antibacterial spray down after every use. I wonder what happens when there are physical items left about. Toilet paper on the floor, syringes left behind, etc. How do you keep the seat from being wet every time someone goes in? If they aren’t hooked up to water and sewer lines, how frequently are they manually maintained? I’m not saying this isn’t a good thing, just that I have a lot of questions that aren’t answered in the article.

    Edit: speech to text fucked my shit up

    • Maven (famous)@piefed.zipEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      In Japan there are public self cleaning toilets and people paid to go between all of the toilets to regularly clean them/restock them as needed.

      Of course with Japan’s culture of being clean in general it wont be nearly as bad as in the US but I’m sure something similar could easily work here.

    • sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world
      63·
      11 hours ago

      They had one of these a while back in Seattle. They were constantly dirty/gross OR someone would go in there for an extended period of time - basically rendering them useless. It is better to have bathrooms with an attendant.

    • starik@lemmy.zip
      3·
      11 hours ago

      If they end up being disgusting, it will become an easy image to use to attack Mamdani

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
    101·
    11 hours ago

    I’m of… a few minds on this.

    I’ve used similar units in other cities. When they are well maintained, they are nice. The problem is that you are still dependent on city workers to refill the cleaning fluid and perform maintenance and… they pretty rapidly become essentially just any old portapotty.

    With one key difference. They also tend to have lots of “anti-loitering” tech. So if you are prairie dogging it, you are fine. If you “kind of have to go” and would rather go now than risk needing to go four blocks later when you aren’t near a toilet? You get “warning” flashing lights and the like and, in some models, a canned speaker alert. Not a huge issue to deal with if you are actually on the toilet but…

    It still fulfills the actual goal of removing public toilets. Hurting unhoused people. Because it means they aren’t a place to shelter on the REALLY bad nights (“oh, but it is really all about stopping those disgusting monsters from shooting up!”) while also actively discouraging basic hygiene. Giving yourself a quick sponge bath with a sink and paper towels goes a long way but “good people” hate the idea of that so better add deterrents…

    And, on a more selfish note: If you’ve ever queued up outside a restroom only to see the door lock for 30-360 seconds after the person you were waiting for gets out… yeah.

    So yeah. As a privileged upper middle class person? This is great for me. And… that is all the vast majority of people need to feel good about themselves.

    • itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      57 minutes ago

      You’re saying they shouldn’t spend money on this? What alternative would you propose? In my mind this seems to fall pretty squarely in the good column.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    27·
    6 hours ago

    These are a horrible option. They tried them in Boston and no one used them. The thing is they were all pay, so unless you had exact change you weren’t using it. But even worse they had signs all over them that if you took too long they would automatically open, and if you tried to hold the door closed, you’d get soaked from the self-cleaning. And of course they were in prominent spots, rather than being off to the side, so no matter what you were walking into a crowd directly from the bathroom

    I have no idea how long they considered too long, but it’s not worth the risk, especially since who ever carries change anyway,

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 hours ago

        Or you could try normal public restrooms. Or mandate that restaurants have them. Both of these used to be true in at least some places and more or less worked. Maybe a few tweaks to discourage camping, assault, and drugs and you’re good to go.

        In a normal public restroom I’ve never seen anything dangerous or overly bad. It can happen

    • MBech@feddit.dk
      11·
      5 hours ago

      The one I’ve been in years ago had a sign saying a red light would light up after 15 minutes, 5 minutes later the door would open. If you can’t finish your business in 20 minutes, you need to seek a doctor, but also, when you have 5 minutes left, pinch it off, get out, get back in, problem solved. It’s meant to make sure people don’t use them to shoot up, or make sure homeless people don’t hog the toilets to sleep in (obviously homelessness needs to be dealt with, but building toilets for the public isn’t how you deal with homelessness).

      Also, I’d be very very surprised if any of these wouldn’t be installed with the ability to pay by credit card and/or phone.