NYC Unveils New Public Toilet, Courtesy Flush Included

For just 25 cents, you finally can experience the steel-and-glass splendor of the city's first new public toilet. City officials gathered in Madison Square Park for the ceremonial first flush of the Automatic Public Toilet (APT). Almost a year after the location was announced and almost 2 years after the toilets were first previewed, Department of Transportation Commissioner Jeannette Sadik-Khan said she was "flushed with excitement in this new era...New Yorkers had their fingers and legs crossed for this special day." And so it goes.

The DOT explains how the self-cleaning APT will work:

The APTs cost 25 cents to operate, with a time limit of 15 minutes and will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Each APT is climate-controlled and includes a toilet, a wash basin with running warm water, and a mirror. An automated system controls the door and prevents unauthorized entrance, and the APTs are fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

After 12 minutes of use, an acoustic alarm and red flashing lights go off for three minutes before the door opens. Once a user has exited, the APT doors will close and the 90-second automatic cleaning cycle will begin. During the cleaning cycle the interior surfaces of the APT are cleaned and dried. Once the self-cleaning process is complete, a new user can access the APT.

The NY Times gives it a mixed review. Reporter Michael Wilson says the wait for the APT's doors to close (it's long in case someone needs more time) is "possibly the longest and most awkward 20 to 30 seconds of a person's day." Also, the toilet evokes "a dungeon or a scene from one of the 'Saw' pictures" because it's "an imposing, metal, cold-looking receptacle" - not unlike a prison loo - and there's a limit to how much toilet paper you can take. Still, it's big and seemed clean (well, it was new).

Were you one of the first to try the public toilet? As this is the first of twenty to be installed, would you use one?

Photographs by Mary Altaffer/AP

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on January 11, 2008 10:16 AM

Comments [rss]

tshell

Japan has a grip of those self-cleaning units... but 15 min? Someone could read a novel, that's 1 and a half pennies a minute...cmon, I say we get porta potty New York.

Reflect

15minutes sounds like the typical gay sex encounter to me. For only 25cents thats a steal.

Why dont we all just clean up after ourselves. Then people would let trust us in using there facilitys. And we would trust in sharing them. -in an Abouloute world.

fivealive

We could have had these public toilets all over the city more then ten years ago if it hadn't been for the handicapped lobby.

Smaller, cheaper, easier to clean, non-wheelchair accessible versions were going to be installed all over the city and one in four would be made bigger for wheelchairs. The handicapped lobby sued, demanding that ALL of the bathrooms be wheelchair accessible. If they didn't get their way, no one would get a bathroom.

That's how our society works.

What a huge inconvenience for the wheelchair users , who are, by definition, mobility-impaired, to travel to the nearest one-out-of-four accessible restroom! The city was right not to adopt such an inconsiderate attitude.

Thespis

@EastRiver: Fair point - even a McDonald's employee is probably overqualified for a job that involves taking quarters and yelling at bums to leave. Maybe $15,000.

Or there are also those public outdoor urinals in Europe. New Yorkers are always claiming to be more continental than the rest of America...

emilydickinson

@SikBug: The emergency button is in case of bad diarrhea.

smitty

The rumor in SF when these were first installed in the 90s was that someone was in the bathroom during the cleaning cycle and drowned. Who knows if that's true.

emilydickinson

In Europe, the toilets have a weight sensor in teh floor, so that no one accidentally goes through the rinse cycle. I'm all for anything that brings more public toilets to NYC, sometimes it can be absurd what you have to do to get in a bathroom. I've bought and thrown away more sodas than I can count over teh years to get 'customer' bathroom priviliges. The only absurd thing, is why would you have an automated toilet that closes at night? Seems like a waste.

smitty

The rumor in SF when these were first installed in the 90s was that someone was in the bathroom during the cleaning cycle and drowned. Who knows if that's true.

SikBug

I'm pretty sure I saw a picture of an emergency button.

Robot

I love bouncing Souls comment(s) 19 (20) about finding a spotless junkie. Very funny!

That commenter also raises a good question, what would happen if you were in there during the clean cycle? I hope the APT has a sensor that indicates when someone is in there.

Robot

I love bouncing Souls comment(s) 19 (20) about finding a spotless junkie. Very funny!

That commenter also raises a good question, what would happen if you were in there during the clean cycle? I hope the APT has a sensor that indicates when someone is in there.

JenChungsBaby

I liked the system in Chichicastenango in Guatemala. An old man sits at a table outside the public restroom (some grungy holes in the floor of a tin shack) and sells you toilet paper. Put down your two quetzals and he measures off a length of paper with his arm, tears it from a roll and hands it to you. If you think it's not enough you can give him another two quetzals and get some more.

That could increase the revenue for these new pay toilets -- sell extra paper by the square foot.

EastRiver

I've got to imagine that paying someone $20,000 a year to man a table is cheaper than installing and operating this sort of thing

If you pay only $20,000 you're going to attract the kind of person that works at McDonald's with 100%+ annual employee turnover.

coolmidwestguy

Is there an emergency phone inside just in case you get locked in accidentally?

Thespis

Is the European system (an old lady at a table outside the john - you put your 15 cents on the table and go in) really that bad? I've got to imagine that paying someone $20,000 a year to man a table is cheaper than installing and operating this sort of thing - particularly with the water wasted with each 90 second cleaning cycle. The only advantage of an automatic toilet is that you can run it 24/7...except this one is only open from 8-8. I'm not saying it's a boondoggle, just that there's a lot of boon - and it's kinda doggly.

SikBug

How long until the orange light comes on?

Bouncing Soul

Hmm can someone accidentally get in during the automatic cleaning process? Will I put a quarter in one day and find a junkie with a needle hanging out of their arm totally spotless?

Bouncing Soul

Hmm can someone accidentally get in during the automatic cleaning process? Will I put a quarter in one day and find a junkie with a needle hanging out of their arm totally spotless?

e2ny

the article in the times sounds like it was written by a yokel by describing them as sooo space-age. "what? automatic toilet? that clean themselves? what will they come up with next?" nevermind that other large cities have had these exact toilets for over a decade. sheesh.

of course, i kind of can't wait to see what inventive ways new yorkers trash them.