SMS for the nearest toilet

The UK's first SMS service for finding the nearest toilet launched in London today. Just text the word "toilet" and SatLav, run by the Westminster City Council, points you the nearest public toilet. Someone should build a recommendation system on top of that and name it George, after the Seinfeld character who knew the location of every good bathroom in Manhattan. From the Associated Press:

The system, which covers 40 public toilets, pinpoints the caller's position by measuring the strength of the phone signal. The texts cost about 50 cents, and most of Westminster's toilets are free.

The council said it hopes the service will stop people from urinating in alleyways, saying some 10,000 gallons of urine ends up in Westminster streets each year.

Link

[#1 posted by dogmatique , November 29, 2007 11:24 AM]

Can't imagine you'd get much joy from this service - there are so few public toilets in Westminster anymore due to the council closing them all for budgetary reasons, you'd most likely piss yourself before you got to the directed toilet.

Same goes for the rest of London. Richmond council have pretty much closed every single public convenience in the borough. Instead they're spending the modest maintainence budget they had pursuading local businesses to allow the public to use their staff toilets.

If you try to use the long since closed toilet in Kennington Cross, you're directed by a notice that the nearest public "convenience" is in Popes Road in Brixton - a 15-20 minute bus ride away.

[#2 posted by Logical Extremes , November 29, 2007 11:26 AM]

And, in related news, the Westminster City Council will be increasing staffing to include two new Urine Volumetric Analysis specialists.

[#3 posted by boduelmike , November 29, 2007 11:57 AM]

Considering the hygeinic state of your average London street, micturation can only improve it...

But then, you could say the same for most cities. I live in the country, which is entirely different. Here, the ground is covered in sheep and rabbit doots.

[#4 posted by hamstu , November 29, 2007 12:11 PM]

Reminds me of MizPee.
http://www.mizpee.com/

[#5 posted by schmod , November 29, 2007 3:24 PM]

Considering that Seinfeld is pretty much the *only one* good American sitcom that didn't make it over to Britain, I don't think George would be a particularly apt name...

[#6 posted by Patrick H , November 30, 2007 4:14 AM]

This could potentially be a gift for those of us with small children. As it is, I try to stay within running distance of a major museum at all times.

Patrick H