If you’re looking for cleanliness in your everyday life, commuting to and from Boston via the MBTA is probably not the best option for you. People sneeze into their hands, wipe their runny noses, and spew germs all over Boston’s subway cars and subsequently grab hold on to railings and straps because, let’s face it, a T ride is anything but smooth.

One new design is poised to eliminate such filth by cleaning itself. Cyclean, the product of Chinese designers Jiyang Li, Tao Liu, Zhen Qiu, Jiayu Zeng, and Shen Zhou, according to Fast Co. Exist, is a strap outfitted with a cleansing device so that if someone needs to hang on while the T takes a sharp turn (or derails), they don’t have to worry about digging through their bag for some hand sanitizer.

Fast Co. Exist notes further that Cyclean has garnered so much interest in its early stages that it won a 2013 Red Dot Award.

The device works quite simply and effectively. Simply pull the strap to cycle it through the attached cleaning device, as you can see in the photo above, and you’re good to go. As the strap gets pulled through, an internal sponge and disinfectant renders it squeaky clean.

Cyclean is certainly a novel idea but it doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Fast Co. Exists points out the obvious – how does one initially pull the strap through without having to grab an infected spot? And would the MBTA be responsible for restocking sanitizer when one device becomes empty?

There are still plenty of logistical questions that can be raised, especially if the MBTA were to adopt the idea, but Cyclean is still in the early stages of development.

Still, it’s nice to imagine a public transit world where we don’t have to pull down our sleeves in order to put a barrier between our hands and a pol coated with the contents of a petri dish.

h/t & image via Fast Co. Exist