Good ideas from overseas (OT bit of fun)

[DerbyBorn]

Just back from a holiday and whilst there I refelcted on a few differences seen there and other places (not really DIY) and wondered if others had thought of similar things. Examples:

Bulgaria - Traffic Lights with an illuminated count-down in red or green to the next change.

Dublin - Traffic lights with ped crossing countdowns - that are made of stainless steel and don't look as though they were made in the 1950's (like ours)

Lanzarote - In our villa - door frame with integral rubber seal to prevent banging - well engineered door and frame with stainless steel hinges.

any others? Comments?

[Frank Erskine]

Probably not a good idea. Some people will take it as if it's launching a spaceship and take off at "0" without any observation of, say, residual traffic coming the other way.

[Martin Brown]

Japan: Plumbed in drip trays under (unreliable) washing machines

Japan: Combined wash basin and cistern on toilet

Japan: Entire lower half bathroom as a watertight plastic moulding

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That would simply encourage jumping the lights - even more.

We have some with pedestrian countdowns round here. Sadly, no pedestrians appear to be able to read.

No reason why you can't fit a door seal here. Have it on the outside doors to prevent draughts. And you can certainly get SS hinges.

[Brian Gaff]

That last one sounds good but maybe they have a standardised bathroom size over there. They have many toilet and bathroom innovations in Japan, some years ago I saw a whole programme about them!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I certainly cant.

grin.

Brian

[Martin Brown]

Sort of - almost everything about room size is still measured in tatami mats. That is the floor space needed to sleep one samurai warrior.

It is still a very clever way to do a wet room quickly and without any risks of leakage to the floor below.

I didn't include the holes in the ground, weird heated toilet seats or the wash and blow dry ones which I do not consider to be improvements.

Japan, France, Germany, Belgium etc : High speed rail links (and maybe Britain in 2040 or so)

[harry]

USA Push button flushes on urinals. (Save a lot of water)

[harry]

Will you be able to afford a ticket?

[Tim+]

Apart from the holes in the ground, what do you have against any of the others? Smearing faeces around with bits of dry paper seems very weird to me.

Tim

[DerbyBorn]

We seem to be rushing headlong into waterless urinals - not yet convinced about these.

[charles]

met them in the UK, too. Even better are ir sensors which detct the user moving away - or the ones in our theatre that only start filling the cistern when someone come to use the urinal. In busy periods will often only flush after teh fourth person has been there.

[Andy Burns]

Germany - Traffic lights with built in game of pong while you wait.

[Graham.]

AFAIK the red + amber we have that precedes the green, is a very British thing, not generally seen elsewhere.

[polygonum]

The small repeater traffic lights prevalent in France. Excellent idea.

[alan]

I've recently used ones in the UK with a PIR sensor that waits until you leave and then flushes.

[Kenny]

I really want to straddle the khazi after a dump...

If they didn't keep on gobbing on the floor...

[Bob Eager]

What do you push them with? (before Adam asks...)

[geoff]

In message , DerbyBorn writes

Even Yogyakarta in Indonesia has red / green count down timers on their traffic lights now

Dense, of course, decided this was a BAD IDEA as people could race off at the lights ...

[geoff]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Does it encourage pedestrians to jump the lights