What would you rather see on our streets: public toilets or public bicycles? Nixing a planned washroom project could leave the city flush with cash to buttress BIXI Toronto Inc.

Toronto city councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has an ingenious plan to solve the bike rental service’s woes. Remember that 20 year deal with Astral Media that left us with those stupid info pillars taking up valuable sidewalk real estate? Included in that deal is the construction of 20 “automated” public toilets, apparently the first of their kind in North America. Requiring electricity, access to sewers and water, the toilets have been tricky to place–there are only two at Queen’s Quay and Woodbine so far–and are pricey to boot, coming in at a cool $450,000 a pop. With 18 bathrooms left to build, Minnan-Wong thinks that instead of continuing the project, the earmarked cash should be redirected towards Bixi, an “elegant solution” in his words. 

The proposal hasn’t reached council yet, but what is clear is that BIXI can’t continue without additional support from the city. Here’s hoping that bikes will win out over baller bathrooms. 

[via Globe & Mail]

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Vidal Wu is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @vidalwuu.

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