Holy sh*t! Amsterdam man in pop-up public toilet shock horror A man in Amsterdam suffered minor injuries last night after a toilet emerging from the ground flipped a moped into the air, which then struck the victim. UriLift loos were installed in the wacky baccy Dutch city in an effort to stop blokes taking a slash in the streets. As this vid shows, the toilets appear to rise up from …
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If this is about stopping people peeing in the street I don't see how it will be that successful. If you feel the need to go in the street it means your bladder is pretty much straining under the pressure. Waiting for this piss pot to fully rise out of the ground is little short of torture if you are busting for a wazz. I can imagine people peeing into it as soon as begins to open which I doubt was the designers original intention.
As I understand it, the loos rise from their underground lairs as the sun sets, ready for the onslaught of the nocturnal pissants, and return to their stinky pits in the morning.
They were considered for the UK, but the concept was presumably too complicated for the average UK bladder-wielder.
One of the most stupid ideas ever. If you MUST have an automated door on the thing, put an automated door on it, don't make it "pop up" dangerously from the ground (or back into at the end).
I see no reason it must do this. There are so many better and cheaper and easier, not to mention safer solutions.
A former colleague of mine used to tell how in one of the French street pissoirs he saw a woman walk in, kick one foot up above the pot and do her stuff. Investigation at the time confirmed her genuine female-ness, although did also nearly cause a fight.
Seems likely that you'd need to go commando, but the options there fore you. Of course, if you want a more customised experience, then just follow the male lead, and start urinating in doorways left right and centre.
As mentioned above, these don't pop up ready for each use but pop up at night and back down in the morning leaving more space in the street for daylight activities at a time when most people would be too bashful to use the urinals. they do something similar in UK town centres (or did, I've not been out in a while to check whether it still does on) but instead used portable orinal blocks dropped in town squares come sunset.
I think the Dutch idea is a reasonable one though even if they're not as usable during the day as the pissours they have.
Still not helpful (downvote all you like), I never said they popped up every use.
They could be permanent and open doors. They could be chair height and used as seating in the day (still does not solve the problem, but a little safer).
If space is that tight that there is no where to put a private urinal, there are other problems. A shotgun solution is not better just because it has some results.
As stated above, they'll rise up at a predetermined hour, and sink below once the need has passed, rather than appearing and disappearing on demand. There's a simialr scheme operating in some British towns, except that, rather than rising from the floor, they're dropped off from the back of a truck, and collected up at the end of the night.
One idiot parks moped over an area that was probably well marked with "No standing or parking". Another man walks by and is completely oblivious to something the size of a small room slowly rising out of the ground, let alone a levitating moped along with it.
Hilarity ensues.
I would bet good money the injured man was a phone zombie and never saw a thing until it literally smacked him.
Presumably it rose with a moped on top of it, not well balanced, a man came up and started using the convenience - remember this is at night and I don't see floodlights on the top of this thing, and the moped toppled off and fell on him. Maybe he leant a hand on the thing which helped nudge the moped off (did you see it wobbling half-way through the video?) or some friends leant on the other side, waiting for him. Anyway, unless you routinely look up for falling vehicles every time you urinate, I don't think it's really fair to laugh at this. The man was apparently badly injured.
Instead of these 'subterranean piss stones' couldn't they just stick more grids outside the pubs, bars and hop-head cafes? Would imagine that if you were off your nut on magic mushrooms, the sight of a pissbox rising from the ground, would be quite a trip!
If you're hanging out in the pub/coffeeshoppe etc, you have access to a very clean WC in most cases. It's the guys drinking in the street, maybe gals too, piss where it's warm, in doorways and such. So keeping the WC's in the paying to stay places private is why people piss in the street. I know some places charge €.50 to have one time access to facilities. Some people pay that much for the beer they drink. Costs money to drinking, cost money to piss it....
@Destroy All Monsters
the local supermarket has cans/tins of beer for 59 euro cents each. A friend quit his job, and needed to stay on a budget. He tested every beer the market had up to 79 euro cents a can. 3 or 4 were drinkable, after a couple, he said they were fine.
"couldn't they just stick more grids outside the pubs, bars and hop-head cafes?"
What's wrong with the canals? The marginal volumes of drunkard piddle will be a tiny fraction of the pollution caused by fish and birds voiding their guts into said waterways, and rows of drunken revellers adopting the Mannekin Pis stance could become a new tourist attraction for Hamsterdam.
No, according to https://twitter.com/020centrum/status/538643078157193216 he was a custodian or maintenance tech (the word used is "beheerder", which translates to administrator but in the context it is probably maintenance tech, or maybe a street-supervisor/custodian).
If London was full of larger-than-a-pillar-box things that emerged from a mini-Minuteman silo while the Strauss boom-boom bit was played, a simple grid over a street-level catchment tank would be sufficient, and nature would take care of the rest.
Completely OT, I was once told that respectable women did not wear lower underwear until late in the 19th century, and one advantage of voluminous skirts was that a leak could be taken over the gully in the street without inconveniencing anybody. In some ways, women's public toilets were a step backwards for female emancipation.
But a step forwards for public health and street fragrance. Though it wouldn't make much difference, as Hacney Carriage drivers were allowed to urinate at the offside rear wheel of their vehicles, and, anyway, everything was horse-drawn.
I also recall (from an antiques program, I think) that ladies had specially-designed pots they would use during long sermons at church.
Quite simple. But for that original apple, obtained by Eve on a long ago Black Friday, we would still live in a state of nature. Nobody would wear clothes, nobody would get drunk, and nobody would be aware that peeing in public could be construed as indecent. Like chimpanzees, in fact.
However, clothes, decency and drugs are a small price to pay for the rise and rise of One Infinite Loop.
Translating the dutch news, it seems the loo came up much faster than normal, or something inside exploded...
-- note circular hole where loo was, and 'lid' next to it... ??
http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/137847/scooterrijder-zwaargewond-door-uitschuivend-toilet
seems to be the mechanism failed...
Do they have a poop-up version with three seashells? I have a feeling it's going to be needed after Shax gets on with the Carolina Reaper omelette. Better make 'em rocket grade seashells, just in case.
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Update
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/23395749/__Ongeluk_urilift_door_explosie__.html
Current thinking is that the urinal popped up due to a gas explosion, possibly sewer gas. The motorscooter was parked on it and due to the explosion it struck the operator of the system (8 broken ribs, concussion, etc.). The units are only deployed at the weekend, under operator control, but now will remain out of service pending the investigation into the causes of the accident.
I read this first in the BBC online and again in The Register and am seriously befuddled. We don't have pop up potties anywhere in the US, and frankly I've never heard of them until this article appeared.
Was the injured man just standing in front of it while it was still below ground, contemplating taking a pee? If so, why was the popping-up unexpected? The unintentionally hilarious video indicates the loo erection happens rather slowly, rising majestically from its underground cave. (God help the poor schmuck who is in a hurry!!)
I wasn't aware that mopeds could go so fast the driver couldn't notice the loo's rise. (unless perhaps he was stinking drunk). How ARE these pop-up pissoires activated? Did the criminally-inclined loo that assaulted the moped move unusually fast? Is THAT why the driver didn't notice?
And are these in the middle of the street? This video indicates a pedestrian walkway, yet the fact that this inconsiderate and/or criminal loo attacked an innocent moped would indicate that the actual vicious pop-up potty had been placed in an inappropriate location. A strange place, IMNHO, to put a Pissbecken.
And in Amsterdam, do people really feel comfortable standing in the middle of the street, whipping out their schlongs and peeing in public? (And do these urinals also service women? Most women are a bit shy about taking a piss out in public. I know I wouldn't use them). I know Europeans are a LOT more relaxed about bodily functions, but I didn't think they were quite THAT relaxed!
So was the moped just innocently tootling along and suddenly the toilet just leaped up and knocked the poor bastard off his bike while sending the bike itself flying, to injure an unfortunate innocent bystander, perhaps already standing there with his fly open? The man was "hit by a moped." What, indeed, happened to the moped driver? Did he survive unscathed? I think the city of Amsterdam bears some liability for its vicious, renegade pissoires.
WHEN PISSOIRES ATTACK!!!! A great theme for a reality TV special!
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