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The World's Most-High Tech Urinal
Mudzy writes "In an effort to handle its nighttime public urination problem, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is considering installing high-tech urinals that disappear below street level during the day. Then at night, an operator comes by with a remote and the Urilift hydraulically lifts to sidewalk level in about two minutes. Then the unit is ready to serve all the nighttime party animals who don't mind peeing in a very exposed public urinal. The $75,000 system has been installed across the Netherlands, and have spread to London and Belfast, but Victoria will be the first North American city to try them out."
Here in Guatemala, we just have a spiral shaped wall, with a urinal in the centre. Way cheaper, and you can use it in the day.
Chances are any disscution on Slashdot will degrade into a flamewar about ID/Christianity within 14 posts.
Other than the obvious "high tech" aspect to these pissoirs and having them only available at night which just doesn't make sense to me, since I occasionally have to urinate during daylight hours.
I've also seen these in North African countries that I've visited like Tunisia and Morocco. I'm guessing the French brought the concept.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Interesting that it only caters to males, and not females... Is that an insult to males pee habits? or is it sexism against females because it is not inclusive?
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
Actually, scratch that. Some enterprising university goers will either find a way to spoof the remote control they use to control its ascent and descent (hilarity ensues), or will remove one from the hole as a souvenir for their dorm.
Actually, an internal stack is pain when there is a blockage, say your son has stuffed the bath sponge round the U bend and tried to wash it away... Cue 20 feet of 4" pipe full of unmentionable, with an access trap at the bottom. In your lounge.
Steve
That was brought up locally (I'm a Victorian) and the arguement is the public urination problem in the downtown core is due to male urination not female, hence the focus on male urination. I am sure the standup urinals could be used by adventureous females, the same ones who would actually go squat in an alley (face away from urinal and bend over slightly?).
In all honesty it is not fair, but it is an ends to a mean. The organisers only care about preventing more public urination, not making it easier for all people to find a public facility. And if you want to talk about discrimination the system also discriminates against those who have to take a #2. Luckily Victoria doesn't have a public defecation problem so that wasn't considered either.
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
So long as it's real soap (sodium and fatty acids), it's non-toxic and unlikely to cause much of a mess. It's even digestible and is metabolized in much the same way as fat.