Exclusive | Hundreds of NYC straphangers hug the walls inside subway stations in wake of spiraling transit crime

Violent crime has created a grim new normal in Big Apple subway stations — the platform wallflower. 

Skittish straphangers are steering clear of the edge — and pinning their backs to the wall as they await their train, terrified they’ll become the next victim of a random shove onto the tracks, riders told The Post. 

On two afternoons recently, The Post witnessed hundreds of riders hugging the walls inside stations at East 86th, East 77th, East 68th, East 59th and East 51st streets, and West 18th Street, 14th Street-Union Square, and Wall Street.

“Ever since the [attack last month], I don’t wear my headphones and I make sure I stay away from the platform edge,” said West 18th Street straphanger Mariana Castillo, 25, referring to the near-fatal assault at the same station on Dec. 31. Police said Joseph Lynskey was pushed onto the tracks by an unhinged Kamel Hawkins.

“I’ve definitely started moving back as far as I can,” said Hoboken resident Tanner Crochet, citing the same incident, as he waited for a southbound 6 train at East 51st Street.

“[Lynskey] probably thought that nothing like that would happen to him, because that’s what everyone thinks,” said Crochet, 23, who also tries to stand near cops if he sees them.

Even MTA board member Lisa Daglian takes precautions.

“If there’s not a lot of space . . . I will either walk very close to the wall and hug that wall, or I will stay where I am,” she told The Post. “And maybe that means I won’t be in the place I want to be on the train, but if there are a lot of other people lined up, I may not want to risk walking by them.”

Sheila Rodgers, 62, also stays away from platform entrances. “It’s my fear that somebody comes down from the street angry and the first person they see, they shove,” she said at the West 18th Street subway station. 

“I always stand back as far as I can now,” said Roosevelt Island resident Penny James, 59, whose spine was practically plastered to the blue barricade inside the 59th Street station while awaiting a southbound 6 train.

The alarming trend caught fire on social media this week. 

“New Yorkers wait against the platform walls for the train. This is what living in fear looks like,” reads the caption of an image of nine straphangers hugging the wall at the East 86th Street 6 station. The photo, posted on X by Asian Wave Alliance President Yiatin Chu on Wednesday, has amassed an eye-popping 3.7 million views. 

A separate image posted to Instagram shows at least eight straphangers pinned to the wall at the East 51st Street 6 station, and is captioned, “How absolutely everyone stands now after the recent subway pushings/altercations.” 

Last year, the subway system saw 10 murders – the highest in 25 years – as well as 579 felony assaults, which was slightly more than there were in 2023, according to data from the NYPD’s transit bureau.