So many ways this can be improved upon. Local garden club receives funding to install a vine-covered privacy trellis? Step stools are provided for children and short people? Interactive lighting? Sound effects similar to the musical stairway at the children’s museum?
At the very least, include a stepstool for short people to stand on.
I saw an episode of “Rick Steve’s Europe” about . . . I think it was Amsterdam.
They have free-standing public urinals which have a simple metal screen around them; perhaps knee height (so you’re not going to have anyone napping in there) to barely over the head. No door; you walk around a corner. They don’t show the inside, but perhaps long enough to contain a trough style urinal big enough for three guys to stand uncomfortably next to each other and let loose.
This strikes me as totally sane and practical. It would take care of the vast amount of public urination problems. You’d need a modest drain and a modest amount of water to periodically flood it out.
I don’t see how this solves the problem of piss on the sidewalk. As far as I’ve seen, every urinal ever has sported a piss puddle beneath it.
Yes - which nicely sums up my initial reaction to these contraptions. 
Roger that!
I mean this has to be posted, right?
I see even more problems…drunks won’t use the urinals while stumbling on the steet at night.
Also, the smell of a urinal that’s not cleaned on a regular basis?
Please please PLEASE install these in downtown San Diego! The stench of pee pee is everywhere!
I’ve certainly seen women pissing in the streets of Paris. Not nearly as often as men, but more times than I can count.
Now you’ve pissed me off!
I’m not saying it’s a commonplace occurrence, but it does happen; pretty much anyplace where people exist.
I live close enough to this and the other recently installed urinals that I regularly walk past them with my dog. There are others in various neighborhoods that don’t compost (or whatever the appropriate term is). If they get people to stop pissing in the streets then I welcome them with open arms. I’m tired of people pissing the alley next to my apartment and I’m tired of having to steer my dog around puddles urine so he doesn’t track it into the house. I don’t see the problem with the urinal facing the river – drunk students already routinely moon the cruise ships or piss into the river as the boats go by, so this strikes me as much more civilized.
I think the real reason this particular one has been so controversial is that it’s on the Ile Saint-Louis, which has a high concentration of elderly rich people whose delicate sensibilities are easily offended. Not saying they’re the only ones who don’t like it, but the controversy is pretty predictable. The mayor of the 4th arrondissement is apparently standing behind the urinals (so to speak) and is planning to deploy more of them, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.
I do think it has more potential than the free self-cleaning public toilets dotted throughout the city. They’re convenient when they’re available, but the self-cleaning cycle takes so long that if there’s a line of more than two people it’s faster to walk a block to the nearest tabac, pay €1 to gulp an espresso at the counter, and use their toilet.
When I’ve traveled in Europe I’ve been disappointed by the relative scarcity of public toilets, and found that even in many food serving establishments had no toilets available for customers. (Yes, this can also be the case in some locations in the US too, but it was more common over there.) I loved the week I spent in Paris but was really brought down by the fact that the city with a proud history of basically inventing the modern sewer system (they even offer tours!) often makes it so hard for travelers to make use of that system.
Larger public parks often offered nice facilities that cost 1€, but that’s certainly more than you could expect a homeless person to pay. It’s interesting to see which public services various governments choose to socialize/subsidize and which they don’t. Most of the world beats us when it comes to things like providing medicine and shelter, but in the capitalist US, for some reason we usually get to piss for free, at least if there’s a park nearby. My opinion is that whether in the US or anywhere else in the western world, nice free public toilets tend to pay for themselves in increased quality of life of both the people who need them, and the people who no longer need to deal with sidewalks where people didn’t have access to them.
The biggest problem with men being encouraged to piss on the street is that women can’t do it too. Now this is a country that’s got its shit together.
Better pissed off than pissed on!
(Unless that’s your kink of course, in which case reverse the order. 
)
It is possible for a woman to pee standing up, even without an accessory. Check your favorite porn site for “water sports” for many examples! 
And that’s the problem amiright? The shit is together for men and women, but not the pee, yes?
I don’t know what all the fuss is about. We’ve had them in Toronto for years.
How about just not pissing in public?
I feel that this discriminates against those of us with shy bladder. Who can I call to voice my outrage?! 
