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D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

washingtonian.com

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Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#61

Post by hot_gril »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #14

> QR code Um, solve the public restrooms problem for whom? Granted I’ve been living far from DC for 20 years, but I spent a large chunk of this summer there. Access to public restrooms was the same as it is here in Seattle: only a problem if you’re a street critter. People who can scan QR codes already have plenty of access to restrooms, they just need to at least suggest they’ll buy something. Homeless people and pe…

> only a problem if you’re a street critter

In parts of the Bay Area, sometimes you can't find a restroom no matter who you are. The UC Berkeley campus during school breaks is one such place. The campus has 0, and the businesses in the surrounding city have very few restrooms, even for paying customers. The subway has restrooms, but they're nearly always closed. You pretty much have to go to a sit-down restaurant (good luck if it's after 9pm). In 2020-1, this was 10X worse with everything being closed.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#62

Post by hot_gril »

imgabe wrote: post #37

I don't know why cities don't offer a tax break to businesses to make their bathrooms publicly available. Make it enough that they can hire an extra employee to make sure there's someone to check the bathroom periodically and do some random checks to make sure businesses aren't cheating. It would have to be cheaper than operating separate public bathrooms. I live in Hong Kong and am still a little amazed at the ubiqu…

> But then there's also no massive homeless and drug problem like there is in the US.

Well that's the key. Go somewhere without that problem in the US, and every amenity is easy to find. In some places, you can visit a stranger's house and ask to use the toilet, which I've seen before.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#63

Post by hoten »

ryukafalz wrote: post #17

> Weight sensors also track if someone’s been in the bathroom too long. As someone with IBS and a few other related things this sounds like it has the potential to be incredibly annoying and frustrating.

Don't worry! Upload a doctor's note, and you'll get a free upgrade to the Pro Pooer tier and get uncapped bathroom time.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#64

Post by neurostimulant »

Animats wrote: post #18

In San Francisco JCDeaux already does that. Those units are self-cleaning, handicapped-accessible, and cost about $300K each. They're complicated, with motors, sensors, and valves. All the hardware and controls are Telemechanique industrial grade. SF has a big problem with those. Vandalism, people shooting up inside, people dumping trash in them, etc. There's no problem providing public bathrooms for rich people. It'…

> San Francisco has an attended 24 hour portable restroom operation in poor parts of the city, called "Pit Stop". Total operating costs are around $30 per flush.

At this price, isn't it cheaper to operate traditional restroom with full time janitor instead?

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#65

Post by derefr »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #43
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the options to "improve society" so people don't make a mess in shared bathrooms? PSAs? Public shaming? Collateral put down to use bathrooms? Do you have any better and specific ideas? I can't think of much more gentle and more likely to motivate people to change behavior than a public accountability system, although it is regrettable that it must be run through a for-profit entity and look like a social cre…

Not worrying about it and accepting that sometimes life is gross?

Someone still has to clean the horrible mess; and that costs money (a lot of money, in the case where someone has created what's basically a biohazard by "writing in brown pen" on the walls); and companies / municipalities don't want to pay that money... which leads to the current situation, where there are basically no public bathrooms. "Just accepting it" is something individuals might do, but it's not something rational economic actors (like corporations) can do — they'll look at the costs of maintaining the bathroom, and decide they'd save money by not having a bathroom.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#66

Post by askvictor »

ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #23
teddyh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people think that a dictatorship is OK as long as the trains all run on time. The right way to solve the problem is not to harden the gatekeeping, but to improve society so that gatekeeping becomes unnecessary. But that’s hard, and has no obvious point where someone can extract money.

What are the options to "improve society" so people don't make a mess in shared bathrooms? PSAs? Public shaming? Collateral put down to use bathrooms? Do you have any better and specific ideas? I can't think of much more gentle and more likely to motivate people to change behavior than a public accountability system, although it is regrettable that it must be run through a for-profit entity and look like a social cre…

Education. Some of which needs to happen through parenting, so this is a multi-generational concept. But to start with, properly fund an education system.

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#67

Post by creato »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #54
imgabe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the government provides those facilities, they get destroyed or monopolized by drug users. People can't destroy the provided facilities and then complain that they aren't available. Society does require a modicum of cooperation from the public in order to function.

I disagree. Creating a law which is impossible for some portion of the public to comply with is always wrong.

If you can’t comply with the law that says you can’t urinate or defecate in public, you should be institutionalized somehow (drug treatment, mental health treatment).

Re: D.C.-area startup wants to solve the public bathroom problem

#69

Post by imgabe »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #60
imgabe wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is in no way impossible for anyone to avoid shitting in the street if they care to put in the slightest bit of effort to avoid doing so.

Where do you use the bathroom? I do it at home, at work or in a business I am patronizing. All three things a destitute street person does not generally have access to.

Train/Bus stations, shopping malls, libraries, homeless shelters, fast food restaurants, gas stations, hotel lobbies, churches

The destitute do also patronize businesses as well from time to time. You do nobody any favors by infantilizing them. Grown adults can find a place to relieve themselves without fouling the public space. If not, perhaps they need to be placed in a facility where they can receive the care and supervision they need.

I'm all for the government providing and maintaining public restrooms as well (or subsidizing businesses that do, per my other comment), but that needs to be coupled with enforcement against people who would abuse them, as well as a general societal will to not let people rot in the street in the name of respecting their life choices.

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