Comment Ditch them (Score 1) 267
Pay phones are a waste of space. How about making cell service a emergency service, and protect it from floods, earthquakes, fires... etc. Also, create emergency charging stations in public facilities for people to charge their phones if the outage is prolonged. Communications are a huge thing to have in a disaster. A pay phone is not going to help you if you are disabled and stuck on the 10th floor in an apartment building.
People used payphones because the cellular network failed.