Max Teodorescu, WSB-TV
Electronic Products Magazine
Once the scalding pee makes contact with the detectors, the police are alerted
Atlanta’s MARTA subway system has a smelly reputation: The public transportation system doubles as public restrooms. "The smell hits you so bad. You hold your breath just to hurry up and get off the elevator," says commuter Alicia Porter to WSB-TV Atlanta. To counter this smelly situation, MARTA has initiated a program that aims to apprehend culprits mid act with using a row of 10 floor-height splash detectors placed alongside both walls of the subway’s elevators.
Director of MARTA’s Elevator/Escalator, Tom Beebe, tells WSB-TV, "If you've ever been in a Porta Potty, that's what it smelled like before." Beebe’s role in all this is to oversee this entire operation, an operation that should otherwise be dubbed “Operation Pee Stop.”
The recent years have seen an increase in public urination. MARTA itself is partially to blame; budget cuts are directly responsible for shutting down myriad public lavatories. An anonymous commuter told local news sources, “If I really got to go, there’s nowhere to go! What am I supposed to do, wait for my bladder to rupture?” MARTA is not completely unsympathetic toward its customers, having reopened restrooms at four stations.
Nevertheless, MARTA hopes that bulk of the pee-stopping operation will be handled by the UDD, or urine detection device. The UDD uses temperature and lighting sensors, and cameras to perceive urine streams. Police are immediately dispatched once an offender is identified. This system, already in pilot phase, has resulted in one direct arrest. The offender was arrested midway through his urination.
UDD is installed in a single MARTA elevator, but the organization will begin installing the system into other elevators, with the goal covering all 111. With the price tag of $10,000 per UDD, commuters remain skeptical that MARTA is wasting money and persecuting the public instead of using the money to open new bathrooms.
