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Atlanta subways battling public urination with pee detectors

Posted at 9:36 PM, Dec 26, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-26 21:36:45-05

Atlanta’s public transit authority has begun installing $10,000 urine detectors to try to stop people from urinating in subway elevators.

MARTA, the eighth largest public transit operator in the country, has a bit of a problem with public spaces serving as urinals.

“If you’ve ever been in a Porta Potty, that’s what it smelled like before,” Tom Beebe, MARTA’s own Director of Elevators and Escalators, told WSB-TV.

The urine detectors alert police when someone starts to go.

WSB-TB says the goal is to install detectors in 111 elevators, which will cost over $1 million.

According to Wired, the majority of MARTA’s restrooms were closed in 2010 due to budget constraints but there hasn’t been any research into whether the closed restrooms led to more public urination.