In Nottingham, England, some pranksters have put up signs signifying that public urination is acceptable in certain places after 7:30 pm. But the places are on Nottingham streets.

The notice reads: "In an attempt to reduce late night public nuisance, during the holiday period, Nottingham City Council has designated several public urination areas across the city.

"This urination area will be cleaned daily between the hours of 5am and 6am."

It's not true, of course, and Nottingham city officials are reminding people that peeing in public is illegal, and trying to take down the signs as quickly as they can.

This would at least be a heck of a lot cheaper than Nickels' most recent public restroom plan.

The latest finance and filing updates from the local-campaign front:

None of the first-time candidates hoping to fill one of up to four council seats that will be vacated next year has raised much money yet, with James Donaldson—the first candidate to file—in the lead with $7,900 raised, but no money on hand. (His balance is actually negative $964.) Highland Park Action Committee Chair Dorsol Plants, a resident of far Southwest Seattle, has yet to raise any money, and former mayoral staffer Jordan Royer has raised just $40. (Sally Bagshaw, a former chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney and an advocate for a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, filed her intent to run with the state on Christmas eve, but has not yet filed at the city's ethics and elections commission.)

If there was any doubt that Richard Conlin isn't running for mayor, it ought to be dispelled by now: The City Council president has just over $36,000 on hand, with slightly more than $40,000 raised total. Same goes for Nick Licata, who seems more likely to retire than run with just over $8,500 on hand. Mayor Greg Nickels, meanwhile, has about $175,000 on hand, with more than $240,000 raised overal.

The plastic-industry-funded Stop the Bag Tax campaign, which is working to repeal a 25-cent fee on disposable grocery bags passed by the city council this year, has raised and spent nearly $250,000, leaving it with just over $6,000 in the bank. All but $10,000 of those contributions came from the American Chemistry Council; the balance came from Dallas-based 7-11 Stores. The pro-fee campaigns have raised money to speak of.

Saying that the citizens haven't had a say on the viaduct replacement options is like saying the city council just needs more time to decide if strip clubs are a menace... or that we should have a sixth monorail vote... or that maybe we should build light rail, but only if people decide they wouldn't rather have buses instead. Enough polling, already! We already voted down the tunnel and elevated viaduct replacement options... Isn't that enough of a message? It's time for our leaders to lead, and for the endless temperature-taking to end.

You know, if it weren't for the really atrocious soundtrack, I could watch this YouTube video over and over and over again. It's about an electric transit system called ULTra that's opening in Heathrow in 2009 (not 2008 as the video says:)

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Seattle needs a multitude of public transit options instead of just one major system, and this ULTra would be perfect for particularly dense areas, if it actually runs as smoothly as ULTra themselves are predicting. For right now, for me, it's enough to repeatedly watch the video on mute and dream.

(Via Futurismic.)

UPDATE: OK, here's how you can tell which buses aren't coming: Go to Metro's web site. (Yes, this is only a solution for those of you at your computers or with wifi-enabled mobile phones). Look up the timetable for your route. Every trip marked with an "H" is canceled; other trips remain on their regular schedules. Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke notes that Metro has been planning service reductions around the holiday since September, and says the extra days were added because so many buses are out of service. "We needed a couple of extra days to get all the repairs done." About 200 Metro buses are currently undergoing maintenance. By 2010, Thielke says, every Metro bus should be equipped with a GPS transponder that will allow the agency to track them in real time. Currently, sites like MyBus and OneBusAway rely on transponders attached to poles at bus stops; if a bus is rerouted or doesn't run, those tracking systems (which all rely on the same database of information) break down.

Original post follows:

Didn't know December 29, 30, and 31 were holidays? Neither did I, until I discovered that most Metro buses are operating on a "reduced weekday schedule" during "this holiday period." Wondering what a "reduced weekday schedule" is? You won't find out from Metro, whose web site doesn't define it anywhere. (Sunday, Saturday, and regular "holiday" schedules do have specific meanings). The nearest I can tell, "reduced weekday" service seems to mean that many routes (particularly South End routes; see the list here) are running less frequently but on no discernible schedule.

Why is today considered a "holiday"? Why does Metro's web site have no specific route information for people who actually need to get to work at a certain time? (This service reduction was in the works long before last week's snowstorms, so Metro had plenty of time to let riders know it was coming and w3hat it meant). What is a "reduced weekday schedule," and why does it seem to impact South End routes the most? I have calls into Metro to find out.

As the Beacon Hill Blog reported last week, Zipcar (which took over from homegrown Flexcar earlier this year) is eliminating the only two cars accessible from North Beacon Hill (one of which also serves Columbia City). Both locations are within a stone's throw of light rail stops. Zipcar's web site, which encourages people to "Give someone access to a whole fleet of cars to drive whenever they want" for Christmas, does not mention that the company is cutting its service to South Seattle.

In an email last week, Zipcar informed South End Zipcar members that “The Zipcar location at Beacon Ave S/Lander St is being closed December 31, 2008, but have no fear — there’s a Zipcar located just down the street at S Charles St/Hiawatha Place.”

What qualifies as "just down the street," in Zipcar's world, is a car a mile and a half away, down Rainier Avenue and across I-90 in Judkins Park. Although Columbia City members will still have access to one Zipcar (down from four a year ago), residents of Holly Park and points south have lost all their Zipcars—a further sign that Zipcar has little or no interest in serving people who rely on transit—the primary target market for traditional carsharing programs.

Calling Hertz—a huge potential new market is waiting.