[title]
New York is gross; we all know this. But despite the ubiquitous scent of urine and mysterious drips from across the city, more than 8.5 million people have decided to live here. Not all things in Gotham are equally gross, though. In a piece published by Men's Health this week, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Matt Bean took to the streets with a handheld germ counter to find out what kinds of public surfaces in the city are the grimiest, and the results were pretty surprising.
The subway bars on a 6 train, for example, clocked a score of 35 on the counter, which means that they're clean enough to encounter a piece of food without rendering it unsafe to eat (that threshold is a score of 50, according to the publication). The same can be said for a doorknob on the exterior of Grand Central Terminal, which drew a score of 45.
The most germ-ridden place Bean found in his quasi-scientific study? The handlebars of a Citi Bike, which had a whopping score of 1,512, beating out a taxi handle (424) a LinkNYC kiosk (807) and a Starbucks' door handle (1,090).
So the next time you go to rent one of New York's most popular forms of alternate transportation, consider bringing a bottle of hand sanitizer and some wet wipes.
Sign up to receive great Time Out deals in your inbox each day.