New site shows which NYC subway stops have the most rats as city looks to clean up its rodent problem
Rats at subway stops will no longer be able to hide and squeal now that a new website has been designed to let New Yorkers know which rodents are most infested.
Urban travel planning app Transit’s new feature, called the “NYC Subway Rat Detector,” has taken off in recent weeks as it allows users to report and track the number of rats during their daily commute.
By responding to multiple-choice questions such as “Are there rats at this train station?” and ‘Do rats dominate this area?’ passengers provide real-time reports on how cluttered New York City subway stations are.
As of Thursday, rats have been spotted on 40 percent of subway rides, and 28 percent of New Yorkers believe that “rats run the city.”
The most heavily infested station is 191st Street on Line 1, with 70 percent of passengers reporting “one or two” rats, and 20 percent saying there are “plenty” of rats at the station.
The ‘NYC Subway Rat Detector’ launched in recent weeks as it allows users to report and track the number of rats at NYC subway stations
The top five stations with the highest rat activity include 191st, Grant Avenue of the A Line, the 149th Street-Grand Concourse of the 2,4,5 and 6 Line, the 137th Street-City College of the 1 Line and the Kingston-Throop Avenue A and C lines.
The N, R, Q and W lines’ Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard, the A line’s Beach-25 Street and the F line’s Bay Parkway are among eight stations with no reports of rat sightings received.
The ‘rat detector’ feature was released in August and has recently taken off with posts on social media platforms.
“It just completely blew up,” said Joe MacNeil, Transit’s lead copywriter The New York Post. “New Yorkers are perversely proud of it” and “think it’s funny.”
The main function of the app is to display bus and train arrival times, delays and station cleanliness based on user feedback.
With more than 17,000 responses from subway passengers in October, Transit was able to… report on rat sightings in the subway.
“Can we talk about this Transit app update,” dancer Angie Hokulani can be heard saying a TikTok video.
“It tells you how messy the station is, and there’s a scale of how many rats,” she said. The video has 1.7 million views and 177 thousand likes on TikTok.
With more than 17,000 responses from subway passengers in October, Transit was able to compile a report on rat sightings on the subway
New York City leaders have been trying to control the rodent population for generations, with mixed results, but sightings of rats in parks, sidewalks and other places around the city have increased and the sightings have only gotten worse since the pandemic.
Social media users were only shocked that the 42nd Street station is the 89th most ranked.
“The 42nd is definitely not just the 89th!” said someone in the comments.
Another user posted a screenshot on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing that 149th Street Grand Concourse has “so many rats.”
“At least the Bronx made the top 10 somewhere,” someone left.
Last year, New York City Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch proclaimed, “The rats aren’t running this city, we are.”
However, only 39 percent of New Yorkers agree with her, while 28 percent believe rats run the city and 33 percent think “we share power.”
New York appears to be improving in its battle against rodents, as it has fallen from second to third place on pest control company Orkin’s list of “most rodent infested cities.”
Earlier this year, Mayor Eric Adams hired Kathleen Coradi as the city’s first director of rodent control, also known as a “rat czar,” at $155,000 a year to tackle the critical rat problem, after the number of rat sightings in had doubled in the past two years. last year.
In June, the mayor’s office reported a 15 percent drop in rat sightings, compared to 2022.
Harlem is one of four so-called “mitigation zones” that receive additional money from the city to combat rats.
The famous ‘pizza rat’ is one of the New York City creatures that has attracted attention for antics on the subway
Mayor Eric Adams has hired Kathleen Coradi as the city’s first director of rodent control, also known as a “rat tsar.”
New York City leaders have been trying to control the rodent population for generations, with mixed results, but sightings of rats in parks, sidewalks and other places around the city have increased and the sightings have only gotten worse since the pandemic.
A report last year found that rodent sightings in New York City spiked, increasing 70 percent compared to the same period two years ago.
Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, rats survived a multimillion-dollar effort aimed at reducing their numbers through increased trash collection and better housing inspections in targeted neighborhoods.
The city even launched a program to use dry ice to suffocate rats in their shelters, but the rats still persist.
City officials insist they are winning in the war against rats: “New York City used to be known for our mean streets, but in the future we will be known for our clean streets,” Adams promised at the start of the summer .