This works. You want space on a NYC subway

[RB TexLa]

You don't have to spread your legs apart. In a calm normal voice just start talking to yourself. About any mundane topic that comes to mind. People will give you space.

[Fumesucker]

1. These days most people will assume you are talking to someone on a bluetooth headset

Just today I've seen at least three people holding conversations with entirely invisible people and without having a phone in their hand.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Nah. thesee days people just assume you're talking on your cell.

[seveneyes]

3. A Space In Time

I'd Love To Change The World

[tabbycat31]

4. Letting one rip is probably more effective

[madokie]

5. Thread winner

[closeupready]

6. So many suburban people have gentrified New York that

the local culture has really changed from the time I came here in the mid-90's (and it was mellowing out then, too, from The Warriors and Taxi Driver all the gritty stuff that inspired those films). The scary people are long gone, mostly. Most subway riders today are like, 'but what will people think?', lol.

Of all the bullshit I have to deal with every day getting from here to there, this is silliness. I don't think I can recall any normal guy sitting with his legs akimbo like this on a subway car EVER. And when someone wants to sit and asks politely for the seat, 99 out of 100 times, they get the seat. Problem solved.

[Wella]

7. Carry a sign that says "The End of the World Is Near" and start quoting Revelations to passersby

That should do it.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

8. That's tame by subway standards.

I think most -- at least regular riders -- would tune that right out.

[Wella]

9. Hmm... Perhaps you should start grabbing people and asking them for square roots

OR sit there quoting all the prime numbers, turning every once in a while and saying, "The universal is indivisible." Then cackle.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. Grabbing...

now *that* would do it. At least for me.

[Wella]

12. Quick, the square root of 7225!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

14. Can't hear you...

cranked up the volume to my earbuds and am avoiding eye contact.

[Wella]

15. :)

[Wella]

13. Good one!

If you're pregnant, you can yell that your water is breaking.

[Brother Buzz]

16. Any graduate of the Ted Nugent School of Charm knows how to grow space on a NYC subway

You know what I mean, Vern?