IF you're a woman you'll have spotted them: knees splayed, feet planted at least two feet apart, thighs rigidly angular.

The man-spreader.

The man-spreader sees public transport as the backdrop against which to display his prowess, a stage on which he can set out clearly how generously nature has endowed him.

There is but one response to being stuck seat-mate to such a man: accept your fate. Clutch your handbag and your dignity to you, press your knees together and lean like Pisa in the opposite direction to his bulk.

But ... hang about. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has other ideas. Namely, "courtesy is contagious?". It has launched a campaign to persuade commuters to think a little more - or less, as the case may be - broadly about their personal space.

Truly there is nothing more irritating than the tendency of certain humans to ignore the personal space of others. This counts for those who insist on keeping their backpacks on their back no matter how crowded the area, using up space another commuter has paid to occupy.

People who stand akimbo. Not just on public transport but anywhere. Anywhere at all. In the aisle of shops, particularly. Or when they choose to adopt the pose rashly and unexpectedly when you're walking past them, nudging you with an unwelcome elbow.

Those, also, who are at the far extreme of the backpack bullies, who take off their bags and sit them on chairs that could be more usefully engaged by a person.

But the worst of these is the man-spreader, adopting his alpha-pose of wholly unnecessary crotch display.

A few months ago, former Games of Thrones actor, Richard Madden, was photographed in a classic man-spreading pose, causing Labour MP Jacqui Smith to slate his posture on Sky News.

There is no need for a gentleman to take up three-quarters of a double seat on public transport, pushing his neighbour against window or into aisle. It is an act of entitlement too far.

Men who choose to air their laundry, dirty or otherwise, in public should be fined for the crime. Courtesy might be contagious, as the MTA slogan goes, but a disregard for personal space will be altered only by financial force. The MTA has said that if asking nicely doesn't work on seat hoggers, enforcement action will taken.

A pound per extra inch taken up might do the trick, might make these cowboys with their John Wayne slouches think twice before they silently boast of their own private extra inches.