Help me...
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I'm still not quite sure if this idea is pure genius or just stupid.
(Though I admit, images of a certain South Park episode come to mind)
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It's transparent, tubed shaped, pedal driven, carts hung on rails. A bit odd yes.
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They say it's good for urban commuting. Is there any form of climate control? How can you sit in there during August in Atlanta? It looks like sitting in a parked car with the windows up.
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so if I get stuck behind some slow guy I can't just pass him? Can I at least push him or do I have to slow down?
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@renalexam said:
They say it's good for urban commuting. Is there any form of climate control? How can you sit in there during August in Atlanta? It looks like sitting in a parked car with the windows up.
What stops homeless people from pissing in it?
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@blakeyrat said:
What stops homeless people from pissing in it?
High-voltage current running through a metal tray under a non-conducting grid. You might not want to spill your drink, though.I like the way they're thinking, but they haven't got it quite right. Covered cyclepaths are a good idea if you want to increase the viability of cycling somewhere, and then you can add a few mph of positive air currents through the main ones to make pedalling a bit easier. The monorail idea is total overkill in terms of structure, whilst having some major flaws - what do you do with the bike you rode to the monorail station? How do you overtake? What if the capsules are all at the bottom of a hill somewhere when you're at the top?
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@blakeyrat said:
@renalexam said:
They say it's good for urban commuting. Is there any form of climate control? How can you sit in there during August in Atlanta? It looks like sitting in a parked car with the windows up.
What stops homeless people from pissing in it?
This sounds like an excellent question to ask about any new technology.
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@Someone You Know said:
@blakeyrat said:
@renalexam said:
They say it's good for urban commuting. Is there any form of climate control? How can you sit in there during August in Atlanta? It looks like sitting in a parked car with the windows up.
What stops homeless people from pissing in it?
This sounds like an excellent question to ask about any new technology.
Seattle wasted a TON of money because they forgot to ask the question: "what stops homeless people from having sex and doing drugs in it?" (The answer: Nothing. Well, possession of $.50, I guess.)
Edit: Oh God they were free? Ok, not even the $.50 was stopping them. Ironically, in this case, you would actually *want* the homeless people to be pissing in it.
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@blakeyrat said:
Seattle wasted a TON of money because they forgot to ask the question: "what stops homeless people from having sex and doing drugs in it?"
Hm, interesting. Paris has had similar automatic toilets for decades, if I remember correctly, and to my knowledge they work pretty good too.
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@blakeyrat said:
Seattle wasted a TON of money because they forgot to ask the question: "what stops homeless people from having sex and doing drugs in it?" (The answer: Nothing. Well, possession of $.50, I guess.)
Edit: Oh God they were free? Ok, not even the $.50 was stopping them. Ironically, in this case, you would actually *want* the homeless people to be pissing in it.
TRWTF is that the money they were spending could have paid for normal toilets with full-time attendants. A million dollars each? WTF were they thinking?
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@b-redeker said:
@blakeyrat said:
Seattle wasted a TON of money because they forgot to ask the question: "what stops homeless people from having sex and doing drugs in it?"
Hm, interesting. Paris has had similar automatic toilets for decades, if I remember correctly, and to my knowledge they work pretty good too.
They built the first one in Pioneer Square-- literally the original Skid Row.
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@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
A million dollars each? WTF were they thinking?
Thankfully, they weren't a million dollars each -- the article just has a very poor wording on the subject. Rather, the project as a whole cost a million dollars for each of five years: $5 million in total.
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But there were only 5 toilets. That's a million dollars each. Granted it's spread over 5 years, but it's still a million dollars each. What in the world costs a million dollars with an *AUTOMATED* tolilet?
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@North Bus said:
@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
A million dollars each? WTF were they thinking?
Thankfully, they weren't a million dollars each -- the article just has a very poor wording on the subject. Rather, the project as a whole cost a million dollars for each of five years: $5 million in total.Five million dollars for five toilets is a million dollars each (over five years), by my reckoning. Say it costs 50k to build a toilet stall - government rates - that leaves 950k over five years to staff them. Hell, I'll contract to keep the place staffed by a security guard and a cleaner 24/7 for 200k a year. Or, more reasonably, for 50k per year, and having built multiple stalls to start with.
You see this kind of bonkers thinking all over the place. I was recently involved with a client who had a budget of 20k to build a data-handling system to save one minimum wage man-day per week. It wasn't about consistency, or quality, or anything like that - not even about the availability of cheap labour: just that they didn't do the maths and work out that it was cheaper to hire in a drone to do the work for the next ten years than to build the system they wanted.
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@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
@North Bus said:
My bad, I thought it was $1 million per year for five years for an entire fleet of toilets (ew) -- I missed the part where it was 5 toilets for 5 years. (Though I would still like to place some blame the obfuscated article wording. Or not.)@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
A million dollars each? WTF were they thinking?
Thankfully, they weren't a million dollars each -- the article just has a very poor wording on the subject. Rather, the project as a whole cost a million dollars for each of five years: $5 million in total.Five million dollars for five toilets is a million dollars each (over five years), by my reckoning. Say it costs 50k to build a toilet stall - government rates - that leaves 950k over five years to staff them. Hell, I'll contract to keep the place staffed by a security guard and a cleaner 24/7 for 200k a year. Or, more reasonably, for 50k per year, and having built multiple stalls to start with.