Resolving the Great Subway Seat Fence

Photograph: Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images

New York City. The city that never sleeps. The Big Apple tree. Nosotros all love it here, in the physical jungle. What a town. The Yankees. Broadway. Skyscrapers. "I'1000 walkin' hither!" Taxis. Law & Order: SVU. The ferry. Key Park. And of class … the subway.

Every New Yorker has their ain subway strategy, and everyone has their own stance virtually how to handle the subway correctly. Maybe you think the Thou train sucks (but actually it's good). Perhaps you think the C railroad train is good (actually, it sucks). The only thing nosotros can all agree on is that the subway's infrastructure is in shambles and someone (Andrew Cuomo) should fix it.

The subway conversation never stops, and unfortunately, it is now the subject field of one of those viral prompt tweets that become around and everyone feels the demand to counterbalance in on, myself included. Hither'due south the question, regarding the perpendicular benches of the model-R68 train cars, which were congenital in French republic and added to the fleet in the mid-'80s.

The choices — ranked scientifically from well-nigh preferable seat to least — are as follows:

Unquestionably the best choice. As a general rule, the best seats on the subway are the ones that accept an open spot on one side. They're less claustrophobic, and they're usually close to the doors, so you lot tin make a quick get out when you need to.

Who chooses this seat: Geniuses, visionaries, the best our society has to offering.

Seat five meets many of the same criteria as seat 1. Information technology is on the stop of the bench. Arguably on the plus side, it has no railing, then you can angle yourself out if demand exist. The downside is that it is poking straight out into the aisle, which ways you're likely to get jostled a few times if you're on a packed train.

Who chooses this seat: Upstanding citizens, good Samaritans, people whose friends are sitting in the nest across the alley and desire to lean in simply not, like, stand over them.

Seat iv has one huge thing going for information technology: Information technology'south a window seat. If you lot're on a line that goes over a span, this is a great seat! The skyline! Only in New York, baby! Just this seat likewise has pregnant downsides. For i affair, you're shoving yourself into a space with very limited leg room. God aid you if you have anything other than a small-scale bag with you. Also, if you're non looking out the windows, yous're staring directly at the person in seat 3, and that's uncomfortable for both of you. If the car is packed, you have picked the accented worst seat to try and get out of when it's your end. Sometimes, two friends will exist in seats five and three and it'due south not groovy to exist in the middle of that.

Who chooses this seat: People with brusk or no legs, skyline appreciators, those settling in for a long ride, people who want to spy on the person in seat three.

Seat two is not a great seat. It's a eye seat. It's never fun to sit in the middle. There's non much else to say here. You're surrounded on both sides, and at that place'southward gonna be someone hovering over you. Merely a archetype suboptimal choice. You can't actually blame anyone for taking this seat. They must really need to sit downwards.

Who chooses this seat: People who are tired after a long day of work and don't care nearly squeezing themselves in between two other people and just want to take a load off.

You lot might call up that seat iii is good because information technology is open on one side. Imitation! It is the most circumscribed seat in the configuration in multiple ways. Whoever is in seat iv, if they're not looking out the window (there's non much to see when the machine is underground) is going to exist staring right at you. But you can't really see them, so y'all have to effigy out how to only glance over occasionally and make sure they're non weird. On top of that, seat iii's legroom overlaps with seat five's, so y'all have to worry nearly finagling that situation while seat four's occupant'south weird knees are, like, correct upwards against you. Physically and psychologically, seat three is a true nightmare seat.

Who chooses this seat: Scallywags, sociopaths, the Trump sons, serial killers, a small kid with a baby brain who is riding the subway for literally the first time ever, the Joker.

A note on methodology: Obviously, you should always cull the railroad train seat that puts the most distance between yous and strangers. For this reason, I am assuming that the other iv seats on the train in this hypothetical scenario will too exist occupied once your option has been fabricated.

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