Public transit is a thing that people deal with every day all over the world. As with anything that puts people into direct contact with each other, sometimes it can get contentious.

I think most people haven’t experienced something quite as contentious as OP did when she climbed on a mostly-empty train for her commute.

Since there were plenty of seats she spread out across four of them, tossing her things and putting her (reasonably clean) feet up.

I (f, 30s) was riding an almost empty train, there were maybe 5 or 6 people in the whole carriage. I sat in a four-seater (two seats on one side, two across) and spread out my stuff, put my jacket on the seat across from me and put my feet on it so that the seat wouldn’t get touched by my socks.

If it matters: It was early in the morning and I had been wearing these socks for less than an hour. My shoes are also clean as I alternate two pairs daily to let them dry out between uses.

A man got on and demanded she “move her bag” so he could sit beside her. OP complied, but went ahead and moved to another set of 4 empty seats so she could have some space again.

A guy in Innguess his late forties or maybe early fifties entered the train, came straight to me and said “move your bag”.

I was puzzled since there was plenty of free seats to go around, so I asked if he really wanted this particular seat and he said yes.

So I picked up my bag, he plopped down next to me and I proceeded to pack up my laptop, drink, jacket, put on my shoes and moved to a different four-seater. I spread out again.

He followed her and again demanded she move her bag. When she questioned him he said it wasn’t about the seat but about “entitled people” who thought their bags needed a seat.

Before I could even get my shoes off, the dude was standing in front of me and said “move your bag”. I asked why. He said that he wanted to sit there.

I answered that he had been wanting that certain seat that I vacated for him, so I don’t see why he would want to switch seats.

He scoffed and explained that it was not about the specific seat but about “entitled people who think their bags deserve a seat”.

OP told him to go piss up a rope and that she wasn’t going to move.

I told him that I moved once for him and wouldn’t move again. He made a movement as if he wanted to grab my bag and I raised my voice saying “don’t you f**king dare!”.

He started lamenting about entitled people again. I told him “I moved for you. There are hundreds of free seats on this train, sit somewhere else.”

He left and complained loudly on the phone about her for the remainder of the ride.

He called me an asshole and went back to his seat. Then he called someone on his phone (or acted like it, who knows) and proceeded to loudly complain about “entitled bitches”.

To be clear, when a train fills up, I of course gather my stuff and vacate seats around me so that others can sit. But I don’t see why I should let some rando boss me around and invade my personal space for no reason.

Was OP wrong to take up so many seats? Let’s find out what Reddit thinks!

The top comment commends OP for not putting up with this nonsense.

This person is pretty sure the guy just wants to make other people as miserable as he is.

They think he didn’t like the fact that she was taking up space.

This commenter definitely read the situation as potentially threatening.

This person doesn’t think OP went far enough.

OP handled this more calmly than I think I would have.

I would have been scared, for sure.