Yeah, the cheap* solution seems like it would involve cameras. Which actually introduces inevitable sex crimes into the equation…
*Leaving aside the costs of the systems of water sprayers, automatic doors, etc., of course.
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Yeah, I suspect that the simplest implementation would be a bunch of cameras, a large multi-display, a minimum-wage employee, and a row of squirt buttons.
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I suppose, at least, they got the gender right.
“La bumsex” would cause all sorts of moral panic.
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this will only deter those who don’t like to get sprayed and have an audience! 
exactly.
also, some people are really thinking a lot about other people’s bathroom sex and how to stop it. maybe they should talk to someone and get some help rather than booby-trapping the public loos.
peephole obviously. for the public good of course.
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One would think the smell alone would be enough to anti-sex anybody.
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American public restrooms have a simple anti-sex system. Through simple inaction of the municipality or business owner every surface of an American restroom is too filthy to touch without suffering waves of nausea.
I have an interesting proposal for dealing with the problem of “rough sleepers”. We could spend a little money on boarding them someplace safe and sanity. Then we don’t have to spend money putting spikes in the alleyways and water sprayers in the toilet stalls.
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Well hopefully most people aren’t using the seat to defecate. I don’t generally expect a public toilet seat to be dirtier than a public transit seat. Though for many reasons I still think the majority of public toilets should be squat toilets.
When the janitor is cleaning it or when the floor is wet, for instance. In some case happened that the men’s restroom had less stalls available due some architectural constraints. I’ve worked in a factory where some chemicals were used so due some regulation an emergency shower was added. The mens’ restroom had one stall converted in a shower. As you can guess we were almost guys, so the womens’ WC was normally empty actually there were less females employed than stalls.
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This is fake news right? How can a small village in Wales have public toilets that work and Boston MA. USA, The Hub of the universe doesn’t?
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What about someone disabled who needs an assistant? Two sets of feet. Suddenly the alarms go off?
That’s all just bullshit. But once again, disabled people get thrown under the bus as we fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place.
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I read that. Christ what an asshole. Not because he goes cottaging. Because of the utter contempt he shows for his wife.
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Conservatism.
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How this wasn’t invented here in America first is bewildering to me. We must be slipping; too much border fear and not enough hanky-panky shaming.
Oh, well there we go then. Order has been restored. Still, it lacks the finesse of blowing the doors open and spraying the occupant(s) down while a speaker blares “Sex Crime!”
Okay, that last bit this one doesn’t seem to do either, but it really should.
Such products already exist and aren’t ridiculously expensive. Although they are mostly used in retail and event spaces. They are an underlayment underneath the actual cleanable floor.
Even at sportsball events, I usually see a line out the door at the women’s room and no wait at the men’s. You would think that building planners would figure this out, but no sign of a clue can be found.
ETA:
I thought that was the problem they were trying to solve in the first place?
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WTF? Is this really a problem? Especially a serious enough one to try to find a technological fix that will likely cause a serious problem for others?
C’mon Wales, I thought you were cool. Even as an American, I think this is too far. Then again, I’d be happy to have more public toilets back in the first place.
Yeah, I’m skeptical that any system (within a reasonable budget) could even distinguish between one or two people, much less the far, far more difficult task of distinguishing between two people engaging in “acceptable” vs. “forbidden” behavior - something which I suspect they haven’t even considered. (With that consideration in mind, at best, with good sensors and very smart software, you’d still end up with a system that stays closed for most cottaging, but springs open occasionally for people going about their business.)
Not so much. They’re supposed to be covered by “a flexible floor covering.” In other words, they’re meant to be put go on top of the floor, under carpet or a mat, not the kind of hard-wearing surface you’d have in a public toilet. Even in that situation, they’re clearly not designed for the kind of task being demanded of them here. (That’s not getting into the theoretical problems beyond just detecting the number of people entering.)
Ok, it’s just unreasonably expensive. (Anything that’s only “pricing on request” isn’t cheap.) There are monthly costs based on size and complexity of task. The most basic system, that might just detect how many people entered at once, would be hundreds of dollars a month. (And that would simply be for a square of sensors under a floor mat by the door, easily disabled or avoided.) That’s not counting the costs of all the systems they’re supposed to be hooked up to (the computing devices for real-time tracking and analysis, automatic doors, water sprayers), nor their maintenance costs. All this as totally superfluous expenses on top of just building and maintaining a public toilet, which municipalities already tend to struggle with.
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Grow more trees and bushes.
Problems solved and raises your green credentials.
Just realised Led Zeppelin has the answer
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15 years or so ago I was involved in a clinic that used small ( 1.5 metre square) pressure sensitive mats to do quick gait analysis. The mat and software were expensive for the time but not exceptional. The resolution of pressure would have been more than enough to distinguish people and with the time invested I bet it could have a reasonable ability to classify the activity with reasonable margins of error. Given how expensive some of the freestanding buildings for public toilets have been locally it would not be a huge increase in budget.
Of course just because it is possible does not mean it should be done.
Edit: just did a quick search and mostly came back with the in shoe insert pressure sensors. The obvious solution is to make everyone have in shoe sensor so we can solve this … problem?
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The problem is not so much that the sensors required don’t exist - it’s that they exist in forms that don’t work within the requirements of a public toilet.
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