Straphanger is a nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 for a standing subway

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 or bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 passenger who grips a hanging strap (nowadays usually an overhead horizontal bar) for support. The name is thought to have originated in the late 19th century when elevated trains had leather straps for the passengers to hold on to.

More generally, it has come to refer to a commuter who uses public transportation:

• 16 April 1893, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 33:

But Lili (a dwarf elephant – ed.) weighs only seventy pounds and her tread would not affect a corn as much as that of the dudish strap-hanger whose equilibrium has been disturbed by the sudden jerk of a green gripman.

• 22 February 1896, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 7:

“No sane man,” said a North-sider yesterday who has been a strap-hanger for years, “expects the street car lines to furnish seats for every passenger during the rush hour morning and evening.”

• 19 April 1899, New York Times, pg. 6:

When the offer of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company to build the underground railroad was published, the million strap-hangers were silent, inert, and helplessly contemplative.

• "An imposing and formal man, Prescott Bush
  Prescott Bush
  Prescott Sheldon Bush was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W...
  
   commuted for years to Grand Central Station, then rode down to Wall Street
  Wall Street
  Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
  
   on the subway. 'He'd die now,' according to George's sister Nancy, 'with limos picking them up. He was a straphanger.'" — Andrew Delbanco
  Andrew Delbanco
  Dr. Andrew H. Delbanco is Director of American Studies at Columbia University and has been Columbia's Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities since 1995...
  
  , "Self-Remade Man," The New York Times review

Military Jargon

Primarily Army Special Forces and Airborne Infantry/Ranger units:

• Military Meaning 1: A parachutist who volunteers to make a jump with a different platoon, team or group – he is said to “Strap Hang” on to the “stick” of Jumpers. The actual term “Strap Hang” is derived in this Military Airborne context because prior to exiting the aircraft, the line of jumpers (known as a “stick”) stands in a line, facing the paratroop door – with their “static line” hooked to an Anchor Line Cable running the length of the aircraft. They grip the static line in their hand and literally – hang on to it as the aircraft makes its way to the drop zone – thus the term “straphanger”. Essentially all the jumpers are straphangers – but the term is only applied to those who were added at the last minute to the jump manifest or who volunteered to jump, coming from a different unit.

• Military Meaning 2: A person who is accepted by a Special Forces or Airborne Infantry/Ranger platoon or team into their closed circle of trusted friends and acquaintances, and is included as an honorary member of the group – mostly during social gatherings however.

Pejorative use

• "Straphanger" is sometimes used to mean a person who benefits from the actions and exertions of someone else, with no efforts of their own; someone who is "just along for the ride". (See also free rider problem
  Free rider problem
  In economics, collective bargaining, psychology, and political science, a free rider is someone who consumes a resource without paying for it, or pays less than the full cost. The free rider problem is the question of how to limit free riding...
  
  .)
• Alternatively, "straphanger(s)" may refer to the easy targets of pick pockets on crowded public transportation.
• In the military slang used by airborne units: airborne qualified personnel conducting an airborne operation with another unit.
• In the central Down East
  Down East
  In New England, the term Down East is applied in several different ways. In the narrowest sense, Down East refers to the coast of the U.S. state of Maine from Penobscot Bay to the Canadian border....
  
   region of Maine
  Maine
  Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
  
  , straphanger has become an insult used against persons who are perceived as being "from away". The term is generally restricted to use by the lower social strata of the area.

External links

• Dictionary definition
• The Straphangers Campaign — a group that advocates the improvement of the NYC Subway system
• Article on development of commuter trains
• Quotes