New York Officials Crack Down on Subway Seat Hogs

NEW YORK —  As part of a crackdown on those minor misdemeanors that make Big Apple life uniquely unpleasant, more and more riders are getting hit with a $50 fine for taking up more than one seat on the subway.

“It’s ridiculous!” sputtered Seth Braunstein while riding an F train at midday. The 36-year-old designer of Zydeco Extreme winter hats said most subway riders know enough to make room when it’s crowded.

“It’s basic etiquette,” he yelled over the roar of the train.

Despite the car being half-empty, Braunstein then carefully stashed his large, green backpack under his seat. “See? I learn fast.”

Yosetti Morel, 25, a home health aide from Manhattan who held her black backpack in her lap, said ticketing riders who take up two seats may help improve manners, “but it’s a high price to pay.”

“I say it’s a way of making more money,” Morel said.

Police say they’re enforcing the little-known city statute--the penalty can range from a warning to a $50 fine--not to harass subway riders or to generate revenue, but to make seats available for passengers.

“When you give out the number of summons that we give out in this city, you’re always going to have someone who is unhappy,” said Police Commissioner Howard Safir.

While the city doesn’t know exactly how many tickets have been given out for taking up more than one subway seat, police have been very busy writing tickets on the subway this year.

New York City Transit spokeswoman Melissa Farley said 28,563 summonses were issued for disorderly conduct on city buses and subways in the first 11 months of this year--well above the 16,539 tickets issued last year. Only 6,894 summonses were issued in 1994, and 1,849 in 1993, she said.

New Yorkers don’t seem to mind the politeness push: Ridership is way up, hitting 100 million in October for the first time since March 1973. And crime is down 60% in the subway compared to four years ago.

Nonetheless, old habits die hard.

John Steven rode the F train one recent day with his feet propped on one seat and his cup of coffee on another--even though the 37-year-old Yugoslavia native was fined $50 two years ago for doing the same thing.

“You can’t be throwing papers on the floor and putting your feet up,” explained Steven, who works for a Manhattan cleaning company. “It’s not fair to the other passengers. That’s why I paid.”

With that, he dropped his feet to the floor and picked up his coffee cup.