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San Francisco's Public Works Agency Tests Paint That Repels Urine

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-clean dept.

monkeyzoo writes: San Francisco is testing an ultra-water-repellant paint on wallls in areas fraught with public urination problems. The paint is designed to repel the urine and soil the offender's pants. "It's supposed to, when people urinate, bounce back and hit them on the pants and get them wet. Hopefully that will discourage them. We will put a sign to give them a heads up," said Mohammad Nuru, director of the San Francisco public works. A Florida company named Ultra-Tech produces the super-hydrophobic oleophobic nano-coating that was also recently used with success on walls in Hamburg, Germany [video] to discourage public urination. Signs posted there warn, "Do not pee here! We pee back!"

7 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Hurr durr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wont they just pee on the ground in front of the wall then?

  2. sigh by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a technical solution to a social problem. I learned this on Slashdot. The problem isn't urine, it's the fact that filthy people - sorry, MEN - are pissing all over the city. All the paint in the world won't fix that. Installing clean, publically accessible bathrooms would fix the problem permanently. Men who already piss everywhere aren't too worried about a little splashback.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. Simples by maroberts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pee at an angle to the wall.

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  4. Night-time pop-up urinals by Trevelyan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why don't they just install night-time pop up urinals, like other cities have done.
    I know them from London, Paris and Amsterdam, but here's a video for one in Watford

    Fairly straight forward solution, and no more stinky city.

    1. Re:Night-time pop-up urinals by jittles · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why don't they just install night-time pop up urinals, like other cities have done. I know them from London, Paris and Amsterdam, but here's a video for one in Watford Fairly straight forward solution, and no more stinky city.

      Have you been to San Francisco? There is a HUGE homeless community there. They used to have public toilets 24/7. Free ones at that. Then the homeless people started living in them. So then they started charging a small fee (I think it was originally around $0.50) to try and keep the homeless people from living inside of them. Eventually, they removed the public toilets because the public was unable to use them anyway. They need to solve the homeless problem until they can solve the public toilet problem.

  5. you are all missing the wall ... er, point! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Main improvement is not that wall pisses back; that is just a comical twist. The important part is that the wall doesn't get soaked in smelly urine. Street washing trucks and machines will take care of the pavement.

  6. First world problems... by mpercy · · Score: 4, Informative

    First world problems caused by other first world problems (like closing or failing to provide public restrooms).