1. First, they look pretty nice from the outside.
2. Stainless steel, so easy to clean.
3. It's really hard to balance privacy with keeping things from being a haven from drug use and prostitution in urban areas, they seem like they did a great job with that.
4. Price seems reasonable.
a good public restroom needs to be able to be used by the public. i'm guessing that if you were visiting a foreign city/country and needed to use the restroom and found a nice, clean public restroom to use, you'd probably not want to be rained on while relieving yourself.
Exactly, which is why I was impressed with the Portland Loo. You want a toilet that is nice, clean and private so that people using it for its intended purpose will feel comfortable using it. You also can't make it too private or else it will be destroyed by drug addicts and prostitutes. I think they did as good a job as possible balancing these two opposing needs.