Urinal targets and other helpful nudges
The always-good GOOD magazine has a short list of unusual nudges to get people to do the "right thing," from reducing teenage pregnancy to quitting nail biting. From GOOD:
Stop men from peeing on the floor.Tricking People Into Doing The Right Thing (GOOD)
Authorities at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess. But if you give them a target, they can’t help but try to hit it. Similar designs have been implemented in urinals around the world, including mini soccer goals, bulls-eyes, and urine video games (seriously). Do they work? Since the bugs were etched into the airport urinals, spillage has decreased by 80 percent.
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Unfortunately most of the things in that article are simply bribes, not what I would call "nudges"
They have these at the urinals in Castle Neuschwanstein, too, which as Cory probably knows was the basis for the Disney Castle.
questionable statistic of the day: "...spillage has decreased by 80 percent."
Maybe they could make the paint for the urinal flies (eeewww) out of temperature sensitive paint such that you have to pee on it for an extended period to make it disappear?
In adult establishments you could make it a woman in a temp-sensitive swimsuit... no, wait.. That would probably not go over well, would it?
I was thinking, what would really get men to want to keep peeing in the same place long enough to get a reward? I know! Sex appeal! Took a moment for the realization of what that would entail to set in.
This is an old trick. In Victorian Britain, apparently porcelain urinals had a bee painted on them for this purpose. Why a bee? Well, the Victorians studied Latin at school and were fond of Latin puns, and the Latin word for bee is "apis".
I like the spirit behind these - bribes or not, they're not coercive tactics at all (with the glaring exception of disulfiram), and enlist the cooperation and consent of the people whose behavior they're trying to change.
The stop-smoking one is the sweetest. The gambling one is a great idea, although I'd worry about it driving addicts toward more dangerous illegal gambling.
#4 - I've seen exactly that. My college's urinals had temp-sensitive rubber pads that read "GO GOPHERS!" when you, eh, engaged them. They turned from black to the school's colors, which was a nice touch.
bees? flies? Try politicians. Or the lens of CCTV camera. (must be a urinal cam SOMEWHERE on the web...)
I love the stop-smoking one too. Though I would think it would be easy enough to get out if you cracked early on by just no longer making deposits.
And yeah, "tinkle targets" are old school, especially as a training aid for teaching toddlers how to hit the bowl.
Actually, given that it's Germany, I bet the actual finding was that spillage has been reduced by 80.61772%, and that they had someone out there with picoliter-scale measuring equipment.
And someone else filming it.
And someone else to dub in a techno-trance soundtrack and sell it from a handcart at some trendy Berlin market.
Here in New York we have had mostly a lot of the Bin Laden urinal targets in the last 7 years. In most of these bathrooms, there is the same amount of pee all over the place.
How about a double-wide for those of us with a bifurcated stream?
i've heard from several friends with kids that tossing a couple Cheerios into the bowl did a world of good in helping teach their boys to aim.
Me? i'm on to your tricks now! i'll pee on anything and everything i can hit, as is my God-given right! Even thought i didn't even want to! And all out of spite because I know you tried to trick me!
This is classic Hobbesian thinking: people act in their own interest, but they often do not understand what actions are or are not, in fact, in their own best interests.
#3: 70% of all statistics are made up on the fly
My job? Oh, I'm Vice-President in charge of compiling Urinal-Spillage Statistics at Schiphol. Here's my card. Go ahead; take it. What?
Actually, Semiotix, Amsterdam hasn't been part of Germany for some time now. ;-)
These are in the urinals at JFK airport, too. Who's the poor sap measuring spillage, anyway? I have a guess it's the same guy who gouged out the Cyclops' eye.
@13: Yeah, I remember my parents using bits of colored construction paper with my little brother.
@17: awfully classy reference for a pee thread.
@16: Oh, THAT Amsterdam. Sorry, I was distracted as I was reading because a fly was buzzing around the room and I was trying to pee on it.
In line the the "no god" shirt, a uninal in a sub shop here in Cincinnati carries an advertisement for a church right at the bullseye.
--Mike
all so silly. A little chicken wire, a neon sign transformer and I'll make damn sure no one misses the target twice.
When I first happened upon these at Amsterdam's Schiphol, I thought for certain I was looking at a real fly. I remember looking down and thinking, "Wow little dude, you are really living the life!"
It was only as I was beginning to reward him for his choice of real estate that I realized the truth.
Yeah, I remember seeing those urinals in the Amsterdam train station a few years ago and thinking "wow, that's pretty clever." But my American brain was already trying to deal with the concept of paying €0.50 to use a public restroom, so the fly wasn't really the top thing on my mind.
There was a bar on Post Street in San Francisco named "Sebastian's" that closed in the early 1980's. It was owned by a Vietnam Vet, and many of it's regular customers were veterans.
Sebastian's had Jane Fonda piss targets in the urinals.
This is a really old idea, and you can find examples all over continental Europe. I presume this is also the origin of a French saying, 'I wouldn't piss on a fly for him'.
One of the small pleasures in life is a urinal that has ice cubes dumped in it.
Melting ice cubes with your urine after a couple of pints is infinitely amusing.
@26: it is fun, but I find the smell of the rising steam a bit unappealing.
make it competitive. Like a carnival game only who ever is poorest at keeping on target finds the voltage steadily rising.
#21, yeah! Kinda like Operation, only it's more than your nose that lights up if you hit the sides.
I can vouch for urinal bees sighted in a newly built freeway rest area in Southern Michigan.
I can vouch for bees in the waterfree urinals they installed in my office in Santa Monica at the end of 2006. I don't recall spillage being an issue, but they sure are cute little fellers (the bees, that is).
I was working in Seoul Korea a couple weeks ago and one office building had fly targets on every urinal in the building, though I didn't have time to check each and every one. They weren't all in the same place, there seemed to be a few different target locations.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11483960@N08/2765537562/