For many people, BART elevators are something to be avoided — even if they do happen to be working. For others, they're a necessary means of accessing the public transit that we all depend upon to get about our daily lives. And so, according to the East Bay Times, BART officials have announced their latest campaign to keep the stuffy metal boxes moving: A spray-on anti-urine coating.
It is no great revelation to the many daily BART riders that station elevators are frequently used as bathrooms by those who do not have access to functioning toilets. However, it may come as a surprise that much like with the agency's poop-clogged escalators, human waste can damage the elevators leaving them inoperable. In their infinite wisdom, BART officials have decided to respond with a spray-on coating that should prevent urine from soaking into the machines' inner workings.
This was not the first solution tried by the agency. Rather, officials originally went with aluminum flooring before changing their mind. Next came stainless steel, but those floors were found to separate from the wall in a way that wasn't conducive to the goal of keeping pee out. Lastly, the spray-on floor was selected.
According to ABC 7, the new floors will cost $340,000 and will be applied to only 80 out of the total 127 system-wide elevators. (The other 47, we assume, are fated to a urine-soaked existence.)
BART, meanwhile, is working to open at least a few station bathrooms by 2018. For those of you who can't hold it for a year and a half, however, the new elevator floors will just have to do.
Related: BART To Tackle Broken, Poopy Escalators With Newly Approved Funds