Yesterday we made a trip into New York City. Finding a (clean) bathroom when in the city can be a challenge. In January of 2008 the City of NY unveiled a fully automatic bathroom that cleans itself after each use. Well, I just had to check it out. And I made a YouTube video to show you the high and low points of my experience.
This New York City Automatic Toilet is located on the lower corner of Madison Square Park – on 23rd Street.
This is one of the first (if not only) self-cleaning toilets on trial in the city. The cost is $110,000 per device. One of my friends said that it’s going to take a lot of trips to the bathroom for the city to recoup their cost on this. And I don’t think many people will be using this. Keep reading (and watching) to find out why.
For .25 you can enter the self-cleaning rest room for 15 minutes. At the end of your time (a buzzer sounds a three minute warning) the door automatically opens. You can also exit at any time prior to the end of the 15 minutes by pressing a button on the wall.
So is this a pleasant experience?
Two words sum up the rest room – wet seat.
The atmosphere inside? Pure prison cell. The toilet has a shiny, wet, uninviting surface that I could not imagine sitting on except in dire emergencies…
Because it is self cleaning, all of the interior of the New York City Automatic Toilet is sprayed with water when you exit. So the next person entering the area is greeted with a wet floor – and a wet toilet (of which there is no seat – you sit right on a prison issue metal rim).
