Man asks if he was wrong to scold stranger for sitting next to him on the train.

If there's a row of empty seats available on public transportation, why would you choose to crowd a stranger's aisle?

Unless you're trying to engineer a rom-com ready meet-cute on the dirty grind that is the train, it's transport etiquette to keep quiet and mind your own business.

So, when a frustrated train passenger decided to consult the moral compass of the internet otherwise known as Reddit's 'Am I the As*hole' about a public transportation dispute, people were quick to help deem a verdict.

AITA (Am I the As*hole) for telling a stranger “it’s weird you chose to sit right next to me when there’s so many other seats available” on public transit?

So I (M) took the transit today, and the street car was totally open and available. It’s really nice because there were about 30 different seats available, and I was alone. I was sitting on the window seat and some random stranger just came up to me and sat next to me.

I was thinking “why is this guy sitting next to me? There’s like 30 available seats at the front and back and he sat next to me.” So I said to him,”why did you sit next to me?'

There’s so many other seats everywhere on the street car it’s just a little strange?” He said, 'well do you own this seat? Is this your seat? I can sit wherever I want, you’re being unreasonable here.”

I said “correct, I don’t own this spot I just don’t understand why you chose to sit right next to me when the entire street car is empty and you can sit anywhere you want on the street car?” He responded the same thing and I thought “okay I don’t want to conflict with a random stranger I don’t even know.”

I ended up getting up and moving because the situation was perplexing to me. It’s like an unwritten rule that if there are an abundance of available seats you sit alone! So AITA in this situation?

Yes, he doesn't 'own' the seat next to him, but this is more of a manners debate than anything.

Why would you actively choose to sit next to someone? If most of us had the option to fly completely alone without hurting the planet, we would. There's a reason that celebrities take private jets and it's not for security reasons. Rather, it's because nobody would choose to sit next to someone guzzling down a pungent snack when you could spread your legs out instead.

Of course, the jury of internet strangers was eager to weigh in on this transportation drama. Here's what people had to say:

Mysterious_Friend_52 said:

NTA. That's intrinsically a super weird thing to do. Breaks all normal conventions of public transport. No way he didn't do that just to screw with you.

andreaak88 said:

This is 100% not proper train etiquette, and the only reason why this guy got pissed off is because you called him out on his creepy behavior. You absolutely did the right thing. NTA.

bricekrispy_ said:

This has using the urinal next to someone when all of the other are open vibes

Fenriswolf_9 said:

NTA - he was trying to get a response from you, and he got one. Whether it was the one he wanted, who knows. I would have just gotten up and moved to a new seat.

So, there you have it!

Everyone agreed unanimously here that this man wasn't at all in the wrong for asking the stranger next to him to move as this should be common sense when traveling in public. Good luck, everyone (and let's hope this stranger found the friend he was seeking).