[HN Gopher] NYC Subway Rat Detector
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NYC Subway Rat Detector
Author : agomez314
Score : 65 points
Date : 2023-11-02 17:01 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (transitapp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (transitapp.com)
| solardev wrote:
| It's not really a rat detector, just a crowd-sourced rat map from
| in-app popup surveys.
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| What are humans if not rat detectors?
| solardev wrote:
| Involuntary rat feeders?
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| We have the same issue in DC (even in government buildings) and
| desperately need a solution. I keep wondering if we can just go
| old school/Istanbulian and have more community cats, which I
| think would be enjoyable anyways but may end up producing some
| different problems.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| Cats don't work against big urban rats
| LeafItAlone wrote:
| The solution then is obviously bigger cats
| solardev wrote:
| Or tastier rats
| jncfhnb wrote:
| It's not a lack of interest. They're just hard to catch
| and fairly dangerous.
| havblue wrote:
| Obligatory Simpsons reference on how to get rid of pigeons
| with lizards.
|
| Skinner: Well, I was wrong; the lizards are a godsend.
|
| Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when
| we're overrun by lizards?
|
| Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of
| Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
|
| Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
|
| Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a
| fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
|
| Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
|
| Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime
| rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
| zelias wrote:
| Clearly the time has come to introduce a large number of rat-
| eating snakes to the underground urban ecosystem
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Fix the food supply and the rats will go away.
| cj wrote:
| Picture of trash bags on the streets in NYC. Not sure if this
| is the primary food source, but it certainly can't help. I've
| never been in a city that routinely piles as much trash on
| public sidewalks as NYC. (The picture below is common to see,
| sadly it's not a journalist picking the worst image they can
| find)
|
| https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/03/22/trash-city-new-
| york-i...
| sandworm101 wrote:
| It is specific to new York. They don't have back alleys
| with dumpsters. Everything is left out on the curb in bags
| for pickup daily.
| TremendousJudge wrote:
| I heard that they don't have trash containers like other
| cities because it would take away parking space. Is there
| truth to this claim?
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| The first part yes, the second part mostly no. It would
| be an immensely complicated project, well into the 10s of
| billions, to do this in New York, and most New Yorkers
| actually don't mind living in filth.
|
| As a project, it will take a mix of parking, road space,
| sidewalk space, and bike lanes.
| Jensson wrote:
| The trash would take up less space if it was in a
| container, so I don't think that argument makes sense.
| Container is probably cheaper as well since it is less
| work to empty.
|
| Just looked at New York in street view and I see trash
| bags lying on the streets taking up parking spots, a
| small container would take up less space.
| IIAOPSW wrote:
| NYC already has this. Its called a "bodega kitty". As in the
| cat that the owners of the local bodega (corner store) keep on
| premise for exactly this purpose.
| artursapek wrote:
| There are rats everywhere under your feet in NYC. You can't see
| 99.9% of them.
| standardUser wrote:
| I live in Manhattan and I see rats pretty often on the streets
| and in the subway. But to be honest, they have never caused me
| any problems. They'd obviously be a big problem if they got into
| people's homes or businesses frequently, but that actually seems
| very rare. It makes me wonder, other than people thinking they
| are gross, what is the primary problem caused by rats in NYC?
| They have a reputation for spreading disease, but what pathogens
| are actually spread to people from rats these days?
| jrockway wrote:
| I think you can see how big the actual problem is when looking
| at how solved the problem is. Since the problem isn't solved
| and life goes on, it's probably not a huge deal. (Bed bugs are
| probably similar. They really freak people out, but they don't
| spread disease and many people don't even know that they're
| being bitten, so they're everywhere. People being freaked out
| doesn't justify a more expensive response. That said, mosquitos
| do spread disease and aren't exactly eradicated, so maybe my
| heuristic is wrong.)
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| The heuristic is off. Urban rats are a vector for
| Leptospirosis.
|
| The only thing those three (rats, bedbugs, mosquitos) have in
| common is that they reproduce faster than we can kill them
| and they hide well.
| neom wrote:
| According to this there are less than 200 cases of
| Leptospirosis a year in the US and most of them are in
| Hawaii.
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9629868/
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| That's because people have learned to keep their food
| where rats can't pee on it. Doesn't mean they are not
| disease carrying.
| standardUser wrote:
| To be fair, bedbugs have been shown to cause mental health
| issues in victims as well has major issues with housing
| security. I can't think of any such extreme problems with
| rats! At least in the last couple centuries.
| huehehue wrote:
| Not trying to be facetious, the wikipedia page seems like a
| good starting point
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rats_in_New_York_City
|
| At a glance, rats are definitely ridden with fleas and disease,
| but there doesn't seem to be good data on transmissions. I'd
| still prefer not to have 10,000 tiny little catalysts for a new
| wave of the plague scuttling under my feet.
| phyzome wrote:
| << The pathogens they carry include bacteria such as
| Clostridium difficile (C. diff), Salmonella, E. coli, and
| Leptospira. >>
|
| Well, humans definitely carry at least three of those as
| well...
|
| << it is unclear how infectious the rats are to residents. >>
|
| And yeah, that's the crux of it. We don't actually know if
| it's a problem!
| aidos wrote:
| Obviously a little different but we got pet rats recently and
| they're lovely little creatures. Super inquisitive and you have
| to have a steady stream of ways to hide their food as a form of
| enrichment so they don't get bored.
|
| Apparently you can't readily keep them on their own because
| they become depressed with the solitude.
|
| 10/10 pet, would recommend.
| neom wrote:
| Hello fellow rat owner. I've had 13 rats through the years!
| :)
|
| One other great thing about rats, you can train them like
| their little dogs:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKLVm6rxaJA
|
| (and yes, can't keep a rat alone, they get very depressed)
| aidos wrote:
| That's a lot of rats, but I can see why!
|
| I was totally naive and unprepared going into it. As a
| result, we got ours from people who had done a terrible job
| with them. The cage was just wire levels with nothing for
| them to explore. They're not well socialised and were
| slowly working to build their trust. I should have known
| that people who would name a pet "fridge" wouldn't be prize
| keepers.
|
| Anyway, we're giving them a much better life and I'm glad
| we got them out of there.
| neom wrote:
| Apple sauce, whipped cream or watered down peanut butter
| on the finger, you'll be best friends in no time. ;)
| neom wrote:
| The Black Death may not have been spread by rats after all:
|
| https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/black-death-may-not-have-b...
|
| Papers: https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2209816119
| and https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1715640115
| no_wizard wrote:
| My bet is rats were _a_ vector, but not the only significant
| vector. Its extremely hard to trace all vectors for a disease
| with pinpoint levels of accuracy to say definitively that any
| _one_ thing was the major cause.
|
| At least, this is what I've learned studying public health
| and how diseases spread thus far, anyway
| mkmk wrote:
| One metric that comes to mind is the # of restaurants that have
| a health code inspection that detected presence of rats or
| mice. This out-of-date post I found seems to have disturbingly
| high % of restaurants with evidence of infestation, which
| certainly seems like a problem.
| https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2014/02/rat-map-shows-where-rat...
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| You could say that this metric puts under question their
| impact though?
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| I agree with you. I like them, and I think they get a bad rap.
| I think specieism is the next frontier after racism. The same
| things we used to say about fellow humans that are no longer
| accepted will be just as not OK to say about rats 50 years from
| now, and their lives and experiences will be considered
| important.
|
| Rats, mice, and other creatures, get a lot of blame for things
| they couldn't possibly be doing, just because of how prevalent
| they are everywhere. They are just an easy target that cannot
| speak for themselves and often do not have anyone to defend
| them. For example, the Black Plague theory which was accepted
| as fact for decades, if not centuries, was recently put under
| question: https://www.google.com/search?q=black+plague+rats
| yadaeno wrote:
| Gees I sure hope humanity doesn't sink to this level where we
| sacrifice out quality of live for the sake of pests. Humanity
| already has enough problems to deal with.
|
| Go to South America or work near trash. When rats start
| falling through the ceiling when you're trying to sleep your
| opinions will quickly change.
| IIAOPSW wrote:
| Rats are the reboot mammals just in case there's another
| meteor.
| tootie wrote:
| Same. They are rarely an active nuisance although they
| certainly can be. I don't recall seeing all that many recently
| and it actually jibes with their results. The stations I
| frequent ranked near the bottom.
| standardUser wrote:
| During pandemic I would see "herds" of rats going from trash
| pile to trash pile at night. But even then, I didn't hear
| about any material harm done to anyone. Other than being
| freaked out by a crowd of 15 rats at once!
| lbotos wrote:
| They rip into trash, they spread food bits around, they chew
| holes through things to get access to food.
|
| (I live in Brooklyn)
| klondike_ wrote:
| Brown rats are an invasive species in North America and
| interfere with the natural ecosystem. Some places have gone to
| great lengths to eliminate them
|
| https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Rats (and pigeons) are arguably _the_ natural ecosystem _in
| NYC_ , though.
| marviel wrote:
| Side comment -- on first blush, I just really like how friendly
| the design is here.
|
| Never used transit -- but may check it out next time I'm in NYC.
| thecyborganizer wrote:
| You can use Transit App in many cities around the world other
| than New York! It's a great piece of software, I rely on it
| heavily when navigating unfamiliar transit systems while
| traveling.
|
| https://transitapp.com/region#all-regions
| Mister_Snuggles wrote:
| I've got a love/hate relationship with Transit.
|
| The data is very accurate. I think they take the data that the
| transit agencies publish then layer on their own algorithms.
| Whatever they do, the predictions of when the bus will show up
| are really, really good.
|
| The UI changed a while back and I really, really hate the UI.
| It feels like it would be more at home on Android, but I'm not
| an Android user so it just feels 'wrong'.
|
| I really hate the Transit Royale thing, but only because my
| city decided that paying $75k[0] to make transit information
| more accessible to everyone wasn't worth it. They did, however,
| spend $70k[1] to do a podcast series about zoning. To be clear,
| the folks behind Transit deserve to get paid, this is a dumb
| decision on the part of the City.
|
| [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/third-party-
| transit-...
|
| [1] https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-
| paid-70...
| bgribble wrote:
| Over the past couple of years the MTA's real-time data has
| gotten much, much better. Most stations have screens showing
| when the next train(s) are arriving, including signs outside
| the station near entrances. (now are they always working,
| that's a different question).
|
| I live in Brooklyn and my local train (C) is one of the worst
| for reliability. It comes every 6-15 minutes during commutes,
| so it's important to know exactly when the next train is coming
| so you can hurry (or chill, if you have already missed the
| train!). https://mta.info is the "horse's mouth" and, while
| it's not a great UX, I much prefer it to going to any third-
| party repackager's app or site.
|
| Just for finding your way around the city, no need to look
| further than Google Maps on mobile, which gives clear and
| reliable subway directions, including scheduled service
| interruptions. The only asterisk on that is that temporary
| service interruptions are not always taken into account for
| finding directions, but mta.info will always set you straight.
| weinzierl wrote:
| I attended a talk recently about LoRaWAN, because I was
| interested in equipping my (kinda off-grid) house with
| temperature sensors for the winter. To my surprise LoRaWAN
| mousetraps seem to be a quite popular application. Eyeballing
| from the map I'd say it was right after street light luminance
| sensors. At the talk they also had a wide range of sensors on
| display, including the mouse traps, which was quite interesting
| to see. Unfortunately they were no live traps, only the
| traditional design, just with a wireless network connection.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| This is so funny. Some time ago (2015 I think) I picked up my
| first Beaglebone Black board and the only application I could
| think of was a mousetrap activated detector. Some of my
| mousetraps were up on floor joists in the basement so it was
| hard to see if a mouse was caught or not. Add a makeshift
| switch (a push pin on the mousetrap and some wire) and after
| writing my first basic Android app, I could make a BLE
| connection to the beaglebone to check the mouse caught status.
|
| I think at one point I expanded it to serving a web page since
| I had an Ethernet jack nearby.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| I think rats are cute. But cockroaches, yuck...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| I think maybe the developer shared this a month ago as a Show HN:
| ?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37742481
| sabujp wrote:
| Take data from the rat subway detector, overlay it with the # of
| restaurants/grocery stores in a given area, and i'd bet you'd
| find a pretty good correlation. Follow the (thrown away) food.
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