Would you buy a Metrogrip?

Subway (Photo by Jefferson Siegel)

Bringing back straphanging
BY CHUCK BENNETT
amNEW YORK STAFF WRITER

December 5, 2005

Hang on! Two competing entrepreneurs want to make New Yorkers straphangers again.

Their inventions -- personal portable straps that attach to subway hand poles -- are slowly picking up momentum at a time of increasingly crowded trains and avian-flu scares.

"People are buying them for stocking suffers 15 at a time," said Christine Goulden, the Brooklyn model who invented the Metrogrip. Her simple device, a synthetic suede strap set with a no-slip nylon center, sells for $5 on her Web site and with a few retailers. It was, she said, inspired by a particularly dirty-looking rider on the Q train in 2002.

The man "gets on, runs his hands from the top to the bottom of the pole and walked out. Then kids come on the train put their mouths on the pole playing and it really grossed me out," she said. She put her strap on the market the next year.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/brooklyn/nyc-amstrap1205,0,1670824.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-brooklyn

I feel this is something that happens in Japan.
While I was there, there were compact tissues that takes germs off from strap hangers before they touch it and sprays you use to take germs off...
I never thought about using them..I thought that was little too much.

In my opinion, if you wash your hands when you get home, it's all good.

but what if you stop for a slice on the way home...

Subject: hell no

i have too much to carry as it is.

i just wash my hands when i get to my destination.

I saw an article on another maker of these (http://transtrap.com/) that was mostly about how the straps can help short people. While I do find it uncomfortable to reach the horizontal bars when I'm not wearing heels, I suspect it would be easier to just push your way to a vertical bar than cram one of these in your purse...

True sometimes holding on to a railing above one's head does get tiring and sometimes the poles in the middle are used by people who like to wrap around it with one arm instead of holding on with their hand. I just say to them, "Excuse me, but if you want to hug a pole, go to Greenpoint."

Oiseau wrote: sometimes the poles in the middle are used by people who like to wrap around it with one arm instead of holding on with their hand.

And what about the people who lean up against the pole with their backs ... ? :evil: Pole hugging / leaning is one of my TOP subway pet peeves (when it's crowded of course). Typically I'll just grab the pole anyway, making sure that my nails go into the persons back ... :twisted:

FLUTE wrote: [quote=Oiseau] sometimes the poles in the middle are used by people who like to wrap around it with one arm instead of holding on with their hand.

And what about the people who lean up against the pole with their backs ... ? :evil: Pole hugging / leaning is one of my TOP subway pet peeves (when it's crowded of course). Typically I'll just grab the pole anyway, making sure that my nails go into the persons back ... :twisted:

I'm way bitchier. I yell (over my ipod, cause, well, I need to hear myself) "EXCUSE ME" and if they don't move I do the whole "ow, my hand hurts. you're hurting me. stop hurting me" routine. I'm the crankiest subway rider ever. and people wonder why I'd rather just sit on my sofa and toddle off to soda in the evening.

and yes, the rails above the seats are WAY too high up for me to comfortably grip. sure, I can grab them, but really, I'd rather just sit in someone's lap.

I once compiled a list of all the annoying types of people you encounter on the subway: http://www.livejournal.com/users/bradamant/84830.html