What about shitable cities? We need more free toilets!
Yeah, going on a roadtrip with my mum is a constant quest for reaching the next toilet, often relying on the goodwill and staff toilets of stores. And there’s genuinely trips she just cannot or does not do, because there’s no toilets on the way.
Absolute insanity to me that we’ve outlawed peeing outside, without having free toilets available everywhere.
Sadly, that doesn’t always help. I’ve lived in a city with several public toilets. Some people would still rather piss on a wall ~30 metres away from the public toilet rather than use it.
They probably reduced the amount of people doing that, though.
Are the public toilets dirty or have a fee?
Both, from what I heard
Then maybe we shouldn’t blame homeless people for shitting on the street lol. How else are they supposed to do it?
“it’s a three minute walk to the nearest toilet”
Huh?
Sits on the ground
I don’t know what’s going on here.
If you’re like me and have to sit down frequently for low blood pressure reasons, sure. But if you have to sit down for mobility disability reasons that unfortunately just won’t do because it’ll be hard to sit down so low let alone get back up.
send tweet
Three minutes isn’t a long walk for an old person either, unless they’re pretty badly disabled or such, and at that point they’ll have walkers with built in seating, or be in a wheelchair with a carer already.
I agree we need more public seating, and more that’s comfortable and not designed to contort you in weird ways. But seats every three minutes walk? That’s kinda insane :-P
But seats every three minutes walk? That’s kinda insane :-P
… A public bench every block is insane? You sound suburban 😆
Seriously, look at the density of public benches and bus stops and seating areas in any European metropolis or dense urban center. A bench every three minutes’ walk isn’t crazy. It’s normal for any city built for the needs of people rather than the needs of cars.
Where I live, unfortunately, a lot of benches have been removed. Because unhoused people sit and lay on them and our authorities think the best way to solve the “homeless problem” is to take the benches away. Which doesn’t help unhoused people and hurts everyone else. Loathsome.
I seriously doubt they removed seats because people were sitting on them.
More likely it was costing too much money.
At least in my city, some people don’t just sit on a seat (or sitable landscaping feature like a low wall). They eat on them, drink alcohol, leave behind food scraps rats eat the food, bottles get smashed, some people even go to the toilet next to the seat, etc. And yes - there are rubbish bins and toilets nearby.
Sometimes it’s worse, bloodstains, fights, etc.
The only parts of the city that have seats are cleaned three times a day and heavily policed with plain clothes officers on foot patrolling the area 24/7/365. That cost wasn’t necessary 10 years ago but it is today. We could go into why but that’s largely irrelevant.
I seriously doubt they removed seats because people were sitting on them.
Really? With all the awful shit that cities do to homeless populations, this is hard to believe?
Check out some examples of “hostile architecture”. Cities will dump a ton of money on making areas unusable for anything other than walking. Hell, there’s no benches at all where I live, and instead there’s signs at major intersections saying it’s illegal to gove money to the homeless, and I’ve seen much worse in other cities.
By the time we have walkable cities we’ll probably have cybernetic legs and hover mobility scooters
My city removed all the benches during covid, but they didn’t give them back. So I bought a BAGOBAGO for my parents. (backpack you can sit on)
Typical government. Amiright?
Quickest thing to notice about the part of the town I’m in near the senior center, where the walking trails go through it there’s SIGNIFICANTLY more seating and trash cans. There’s benches spaced out around the rest of town too but honestly the buses are probably more reliable for that, unless it’s a busy day or time and you have to stand there too. Downtown has a lot of public seating too but the spacing is weird and it’s just a busy area where that seating might be taken, or sticky, because there’s a bunch of ice cream shops over there and people dripping or spilling has become enough of an issue that it’s not uncommon to see a “NO ICE CREAM” sign.
My aging engineer of a father had an idea for a great design that keep getting updated in my head. He said he would like some kind of passive exoskeleton strapped on his legs and pelvis. When sitting though, it would put some springs in tension that would then help him lift back up. I think it could also be designed to have a locked mode to “sit” comfortably against any straight wall/tree.
Nothing new, it’s called a pelvis orthosis.
Interesting! But after a bit of research I find nothing of the sort: either they are device that prevents flexion up to a certain angle but do not help movement or they are active motor-aided designs. Would you have an additional keyword or a link?
You basically found it. They relieve pressure on the joints, in addition to locking certain angles that hurt. Springs would essentially do the same thing, but more dangerous.
Helping upward movement is the whole point of the contraption, but thanks, I’ll probably buy some of these and strong springs to do some tests.
Springs are some of the most dangerous things in engineering, especially strong ones. There is a reason why you don’t fuck with the garage door. Anything happens - the person falls over, a bicycle hits them, etc - and it’s a tragedy waiting to happen
This is how engineers die:
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted polio and was left severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. On November 2, 1944, at the age of 55, he was found dead at his home in Worthington, Ohio. He had been killed by his own device after he became entangled in it and died of strangulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
Safety? What’s that?
Considering that he also invented leaded gas and freon it’s almost more like his bad inventions finally caught him personally
Not to discourage creativity, but I think there was a whole documentary about how bad an idea spring loaded exoskeletons are. Five Nights at Freddy’s or something like that?
Post your progress and results on the community, I’m curious!
I wonder how much weight an effective design would add. It would probably need to be made out of some decent material, which would probably drive up the cost.
Aluminium would probably suffice, I doubt it would add more than a kilogram even if made of steel. You need an articulation that can hold let’s say 150kg for an overweight person putting all their weight on one leg. It is not a crazy mechanical constraint. Bikes handle more with lightweight structure and more complex mechanisms.
Dude. I’m 59 and big. Just looking at that picture made my knees pop.
Doesn’t seem to work in IB, CA, USA. There are four benches that I know exist, but none are marked.
This uses Open Street Map so if no one mapped them then they won’t show up.
I use https://every-door.app/ to map them in my vacinity when I go for a walk. I have already mapped dozens of benches
I unironically love the idea of Cripple-Punk.
It’s really powerful if you’re a disabled person too. Learnt some great advice in that community. Stuff like spiked covers for the handles on your wheelchair so people don’t just move you without your consent.
I saw this in Hong Kong, which I know isnt known for its walkability or anything but it has amazing public transport you can get anywhere to, and then it has like absolutely no sits anywhere… if there were they are taken by the other thousands that are looking for a sit hahaha
Asians make their own seat.
right hahaha
Vancouver has a lot of flaws, but walkability and accessibility are things that it does better than most other big cities.
We also need shittable cities. It is a massive pain to be out without a public restroom, especially at night when the already slim toilet options get locked up. My best strategy has been going to police stations and bothering a cop for a bathroom key at 1am. If nothing else, it’s funny.
One of the rare things that America actually does pretty well. There are restrooms in practically every building.
And there are a lot places its just a public bathroom no need to pay. Less true on the coasts till you get to the highways in exp though.
In my personal experience, ~95% are public, though as you said it depends on the area
This. When I see cities without public restrooms (and not just on the most touristy areas) I just assume that they don’t care about their citizens. It’s such a basic need.
Absolutely! I don’t even have any bowel related health issues and occasionally find myself in trouble.
The worst was when I used to go running along the river the city I lived in. For years, the public toilet I occasionally used was open 24 hours. Then one day, for no reason and with no notice, they started locking it between 9 pm and 9 am. The day I discovered that was not a good day.
Knowing that I needed ready access to a toilet a few times a month was enough to curtail my running to the point where I just quit.
In more than one way. When I’m out with my dogs I sometimes have to carry their poop for kilometers because my city can’t be bothered to set up some bins along the walkways. The very few that are around are at playgrounds where I’m not allowed to enter with the dogs. And then for whatever reason they realize they’ve got a bunch left and just install five of them at one place.
I hate that many other people don’t pick up after their dogs, but in a way I understand at least some of their frustrations. They’re assholes nonetheless.
If that ain’t white privilege I don’t know what is
Yeah, but better to annoy cops with it than gas station employees
I think they live in one of the uncivilized countries that don’t have a free public restroom in every store and in parks and such
Like England
Savages…
I’m american, it’s still hard to find a free toilet in the city sometimes outside of subway stations.
As in they have a “bathrooms for customers only” sign or they have an actual set fee for using the facilities?
yeah, fair
I once turned in a wallet I found on a bench near a police station and the way they spoke to me and asked questions made me never want to enter a police station again. And I’m white.
Shout out to all of the fellow Lemmy people with IBS/IBD who cannot be more than 5 minutes from a bathroom and yet have no right to one in public. It’s a legitimate disability that the ADA does not cover despite more and more people having it. The right to accessible bodily waste disposal should be recognized the world over.
@CleoTheWizard @Sdnimm543 do you mind explaining your comment that the ADA doesn’t cover it? I’m pretty certain that GI disorders are included in the ADA
What I mean by this is that the ADA recognizes it as a disability and you can get work accommodations for it, but the ADA does not require access to public bathrooms to be made available. I view it as an accommodation similar to wheelchair ramps on sidewalks or businesses, the law should absolutely change.
Some states have enacted their own policy that allows you to carry and show a card that states your disability and forces businesses to open their restroom to you, even if its employees only. This should be done at the national level though.
I’m not an expert on this btw, this has just been my own experience and research on it having IBD myself.
@Sdnimm543 @stabby_cicada I believe India has a solution for you.
What do you mean, I sit in my car all the time
But do you shit in your car?
Never assume a bottle of apple juice in a footwell is apple juice.
Could well be brake fluid or coolant. I know at least one guy who got their bottles mixed once.
It’s the brownies in the glove compartment I’m worried about.
Oh man. I want unread this.
Sittable cars means shittable cars send tweet
