This article made me think of public bathrooms in the UK, which, despite having to pay to enter, are some of the most disgusting public bathrooms I've seen.

I like the idea of the throne public bathrooms. Not requiring payment, but identification instead. I wonder if you just enter your phone number, or if they text you a code you have to enter to verify that it's your phone number?

This also feels like the sort of problem the Chinese social credit system is meant to solve. With cameras everywhere & facial/gait recognition, they can identify people anywhere in public, and punish bad behaviour below the level of crime.

I also remember the UK years had a psychologist change the wording/structure of some tax forms to increase % of on time payments, and it worked so well they set up a department to do it in other areas of govt. I wonder what happened with that...

Anyway, it's an interesting problem space.

I use the Throne bathrooms all the time here in LA. They’re really conveniently placed next to a bunch of Metro stops and are pretty frequently used. I’d actually argue that for busier stations (North Hollywood) more should be added!

The way it works is that you text a phone number (facilitated by a QR code) which Throne you want to use and it automatically opens. These bathrooms play classical music and are touchless so you don’t have to touch any knobs or buttons, you just wave over a sensor to operate the sink or open the door. It’s overall super frictionless/convenient and I agree with the article on how well they’ve been treated (I haven’t seen any graffiti or vandalism yet) despite their frequent use.

>I wonder what happened with that...

It got privatised.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/behavioural-insi...

Sounds like yet another thing that makes life harder for the unbanked, the homeless etc.