Results tagged “publictoilet”

Those space-age automated public toilets—or A.P.T.s, as they're known in the business—are all the rage in the two locations where they've been installed. Cemusa, the Spanish company that won a contract in 2005 to install 20 of them citywide, says that the self-cleaning A.T.P. in Madison Square Park was used 2,736 times in a recent 30-day period, while the one in Corona was used 1,920 times. So why have only two been installed since the prototype was unveiled back in 2006? A spokesman for the DOT tells the Times, "Some communities don’t want A.P.T.’s." You'll recall that some Park Slope residents had objected to a proposed toilet at Grand Army Plaza, and a Councilwoman representing the Upper East Side also declined.

Today's Post gives a heads up about the site Diaroogle, the place to visit if you're in Manhattan and in need of a public restroom. What started as a gag project for developers Evan Cooney and Kevin Burg has turned into an extensive resource for desperate New Yorkers who can download it as an application for their mobile devices. What makes the site stand out as something more than just a Google Map locator is that each bathroom is rated and comes with specific instructions about the location, such as directions to the exact spot where a restroom is inside a hotel lobby or a warning about what a hassle the required bag check at B&H Camera can be. You also can't help but respect a site that refuses to list the self-cleaning toilet in Madison Square Park because of its hefty twenty-five cent charge.

Seven months in and the Automated Public Toilet experiment in Madison Square Park has been little but a smashing success. The NY Times reports that the only problem has been just how badly people want to get into the toilet with traditional pounding on the door doing more to hurry people along than the APT's acoustic alarm and red flashing lights that go off for three minutes after you've been inside for twelve.

Given that NYC is currently embarking on an ambitious public toilet plan, this news from the Pacific Northwest is appropriate: After spending millions on installing self-cleaning, unisex high-tech public toilets in 2004, Seattle officials have decided to auction them off on eBay. Apparently the toilets attracted crime ("drug users and prostitutes") and became an embarrassing topic. There are no bids on the toilets so far, but if you have $89,000 and the right plumbing set up, you could snatch one up!

The city and this site is abuzz with news of new public restrooms that cost only $.25 and are self-sanitizing. The standalone units give one 15 minutes to do your business before scrubbing itself down in advance of the next user. Sounds like a nice convenience, although some people wondered who needs 15 minutes in a restroom other than those with gastro-health problems, drug users, and couples looking to engage in some quasi-public-private sex. Commenter JenChungsBra wondered if his experiences in Central America and their free market ass-wiping conventions could improve Gotham's space-age installations:

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.

Continue reading "Comment of the Day: Pay Toilets"

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.