- A New York subway app called Transit released a feature that tracks rats at stations in NYC.
- It uses sightings by users to keep tabs on which stations have the most rats.
It's no secret that the rats run New York City.
New York's rat population has increased 800% in less than 65 years, and experts believe around 90% of the city is infested with them. Some tourists are even coming to the Big Apple for the express purpose of seeing as many rats as they can.
The city hired a rat czar to try to combat the issue earlier this year, and solutions like birth control and traps have proved fruitless.
Day-to-day, it's on New Yorkers to remain vigilant if they want to avoid the true lords of the city.
Now, the popular Transit app, which provides users with information on public transit availability based on real-time reports, has released its "Rat Detector" feature.
The idea is users can report how many rats they see at their local subway station, and the app compiles findings to give each station a rat ranking, according to a blog post from the app.
Ratings range from none to "so many," and it also lists where each station falls among the city's 472 subway stations.
"We launched the rat detector project to show how easy our app makes it for riders to sound off on their commute," a representative for Transit said in a statement to Insider of the update. "In addition to rating each station's rattiness, riders can also give their ride a star rating and answer questions about the quality of their experience on public transit. Then we work with transit agencies to use this rider feedback and improve transit service."
Transit reports that New Yorkers who use its app see rats on 40% of their subway rides and that they're most often spotted by riders who take the train at night.
As of Friday, the Grant Avenue stop in Brooklyn was the most rat-infested of all of New York's subway stations, according to Transit users' self-reporting, with the Harlem-148th Street in Harlem and the Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens coming in second and third, respectively.
A few New Yorkers have taken to social media to discuss the new Transit feature, with user @smokulani's TikTok video explaining the feature amassing over one million views as of Friday. Some expressed horror at the rats in the comment section of her video, but many others made light of the massive population.
@smokulani #greenscreen #nyc #transit #rats ♬ original sound - smokulani☆
"Me choosing only stations with 'so many rats,'" one user said.
"I understand wanting to know about rat density, but what about personality?" another wrote. "Are they more pensive or more lackadaisical?"
The same representative for Transit told Insider the comapny was "glad" users were engaging with the rat ratings.
"We're glad that our users' rat ratings speak to New Yorkers; the goal is to make sure that transit riders have a voice in making sure their local transit systems offer the best service possible," they said.