A popular real-time travel and map app is offering a new and unexpected feature that is exciting New Yorkers—rat tracking.
Transit is a mobile app that provides real-time public transport data, giving users schedules and travel alerts.
As well as the ability to see which trains are delayed, pick up a ride share or avoid a packed station, Transit has introduced its new rat tracker.
Enlisting its millions of users in New York City, the app is now asking users to report if they have seen any rats on their journey, collecting the data and providing a guide for all travelers to tell them which stations in the city are the "rattiest."
New York City has one of the highest populations of brown rats in the U.S. Researchers from New York pest control company MMPC estimated that there are approximately 3 million rats in the city as of 2023, finding that the number had increased by 42 percent in the past decade.
Manhattan had the biggest change in rat population—up 66 percent—followed by Brooklyn (56 percent) and the Bronx (54 percent).
Musophobia, an irrational and overwhelming fear of mice and rats, is a recognized phobia.
Fear of rats was common among participants in a 2019 study on living with rats in a disadvantaged urban neighborhood. Participants generally disliked encountering rats, raising issues of health and safety for themselves and the community due to the belief that rats carry disease.
New York is all too aware of the rat problem, too. In April, New York's Mayor Eric Adams appointed its first "rat czar," Kathleen Corradi.
With a $3.5 million budget to reduce the city's rat population, the rodents were described as "public enemy number one."
The good news for people desperate to avoid a rat encounter in the city is that Transit can help them avoid the areas with the most reported rodents, and for those who aren't as worried, they can become spotters—reporting sightings to add to data.
On TikTok, people have even referred to the app's new feature as a "real life Pokémon GO" as it encourages everyday rat hunters in the city.
The bad news? Rats seem to be everywhere. Reported on 40 percent of all subway trips. The three stations with the most sightings in the last 30 days were Harlem-148th Street, 145th Street and Grant Avenue.
According to data collected by Transit, rat reports were most likely to peak after 2 a.m., and perhaps unsurprisingly reports were more common in underground subway stations than in elevated ones.
To find out if your nearest station has a rat problem, the Transit app provides data from stations on their app and website that have at least 10 reports from passengers in the past 30 days.
Newsweek reached out to Transit via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ... Read more
