In a world where small inconveniences destroy potencial great days, avoiding the burden to carry a wet umbrella might bring you some joy. Leave alone the costs of cleaning up public spaces during and after a rainy day. "Rain on me" started as an excuse to not carry an umbrella with me and, after some amazement with the Swiss public transport system, the idea took shape: umbrella collectors equipped with automatic dryers to be placed in public spaces such as buses and train stations, as well as electric vehicles.
The drying boxes will be managed by a mobile application in order to ensure availability and easy integration with other public transport applications, such as timetables and ticketing system. Using their smartphone, one would then be able to drop a wet umbrella in and pick up a dry one, enabling a convenient commute even in a rainy day.
The costs of construction and maintenance were based on commercial hand dryers – they do the job for an affordable price with a little adaptation and creative work. The boxes will be able to function automatically, requiring only some source of electricity (1.6 kW) to work properly. Based on data provided by a local public transport company in the city of Geneva (TPG), the implementation of prototypes in the current fleet of electric buses would be possible without any extra effort.
The profit from its implementation into public transport vehicles might be leveraged by small additional fees to monthly or annual subscriptions, as well as in-app purchases. There are ways of extending the applicability of those Smart Boxes to other facilities, such as airports, restaurants, hotels and community spaces making it a commercial product that can be produced in large scale.