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Metro Glimpses a Flush of the Future
High-Tech Toilet Being Tested At Huntington Offers Riders Relief
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 9, 2003; Page B01
Ronald Terrell was unsure of the shiny, silver structure that was positively glowing yesterday in a dark corner of the Huntington Metro station. Its door glided open, light spilled out, and Terrell walked up tentatively, as if approaching an alien spaceship.
"Whoa," the 22-year-old Fairfax County resident said, as he drew closer and spotted a toilet inside the blindingly white porcelain interior. "That's pretty cool. Whoa, I've never seen one of those."
Terrell was admiring the appropriately named Galaxy, a self-cleaning computerized toilet imported from New Zealand. Metro is leasing it as part of a one-year, $109,000 pilot program to bring some relief to subway passengers.
The Galaxy is not your county fair Jiffy John. The six-ton stainless steel box stands inside the fare gates and is available free to anyone who has paid a fare. It measures about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide and features a heated tile floor, a mirror, coat hooks, bright lighting and recordings of soft piano music.
At the touch of a button, the toilet seat comes out of a compartment built into the wall. Toilet paper is dispensed by the press of another button. After the toilet is used, it automatically flushes and the seat is washed in cleanser and returned to its hidden compartment.
The "sink" is built into the wall. When hands are placed under one sensor, a dollop of liquid soap is released. Under another, warm water sprays, and under a third sensor, hand dryers automatically turn on. After 30 flushes, the Galaxy locks itself and goes through a five-minute chemical rinse and dry cycle, like a dishwasher.
A couple of Texas tourists, Mary Lou and Tom Pevehouse, were the first to use the Galaxy yesterday. Once inside, Mary Lou Pevehouse took a few minutes to figure out how it worked, causing her husband some concern as he waited outside. "I'm beginning to think we'll have to rescue her," he said.
No need to worry: Its manufacturer says the Galaxy automatically opens after a person has been inside for 10 minutes. Mary Lou Pevehouse finally emerged a little dazed and complained that the self-washing toilet seat had been wet and she had to use a wad of toilet paper to dry it before use.
T. Dana Kauffman, who represents Fairfax on the Metro board, said he wants to see whether the Galaxy attracts new riders to the Huntington Station. "We're trying to increase the ridership among seniors, families with small children and people with incontinence issues," he said. If, after a year, ridership has not measurably increased at that station, "it'll be a hard sell" to keep the Galaxy, he said.
Yesterday's maiden flush was emotional for Robert Brubaker, a retired Fairfax County computer manager who has lobbied Metro for two years to make its restrooms more available to passengers.
"This is a big step," said Brubaker, who has created a Web site, metroped.org/Restroom/Home.htm, formed a group called the Public Restrooms Initiative and become a darling of the bladder-challenged community, collecting speaking invitations from groups such as the National Association for Continence.
Many riders are not aware that restrooms exist in the Metro system, hidden as they are behind heavy brown doors with small signs that read "To Fire Equipment Cabinet" or "Authorized Personnel Only."
When Metro was designed in the early 1970s, the retired military men who planned the system considered New York City's troubled subway system and decided that public restrooms were out, along with any nooks or crannies or visual barriers that would offer hiding space for criminals.
But every Metro station was built with at least two restrooms, one for each sex. They are usually near the station manager's kiosk, off a hallway behind a locked door. They are spacious and clean, equipped with multiple stalls, plenty of soap and neatly stacked paper towels. Metro policy requires station managers to make the restrooms available to any passenger who is having an emergency, has small children or is elderly or disabled. But riders say station managers rarely admit them to restrooms.
"People don't know about the bathrooms, and the station managers have been reluctant to let them use it," Kauffman said.
Metro Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson has objected to unlocking bathrooms and keeping them open to the public, saying they would create a haven for criminals and illegal activity.
A check of major subways across the country found a mix of policies regarding public restrooms. Los Angeles and Chicago do not have restrooms; Philadelphia has restrooms at major stations; and Boston unlocks its restrooms on passenger request.
The New York subway system has about 200 public restrooms in its stations but closed most of them about 20 years ago because they became impossible to clean, maintain and police, transit officials said. Although about 60 remain open today, their locations are not publicized; they are an amenity for those in the know.
Kauffman said he will propose that signs be installed at stations to let passengers know that restrooms exist and can be used on request of the station manager. At stations where restrooms are in a sensitive area -- close to the power source for a station, for example -- Metro ought to consider installing a Galaxy toilet elsewhere on the property, Kauffman said.
Surrounding the Galaxy yesterday was a cluster of executives from Exeloo, the New Zealand company that manufactures it, including one whose necktie was patterned with a small image of a man reading a newspaper while sitting on a toilet. Exeloo sees the Metro project as key to winning business among other U.S. transit systems and recently struck a deal to install a portable restroom in the Atlanta subway system.
"Metro is looked at as the premier transit system in the country," said Doug Stoner, president of Exeloo East, the company's U.S. division. "Obviously, this is a very big deal to us."
What will they come up with next?!?! Actually it is pretty cool...
