Tough as the big city might be at times, even gruff New Yorkers have an admirably wide kind streak when it comes to pregnant straphangers.

That's the conclusion drawn from Elizabeth Carey Smith's interesting data-based project on modern manners in the New York City subway system. For the final four months of her recent pregnancy, Smith kept a careful log of her daily travels. She noted each and every time her fellow travelers on crowded trains volunteered to give up their seats -- as well as those times when offers to sit were not forthcoming.

Given the unseeing gaze and smartphone hypnosis that most of us adopt to survive rush hour underground, Smith's findings are surprisingly upbeat. She called on her trade as a graphic designer to present the data in a nifty poster.

"New Yorkers aren't as rude as we like to think that we are, or as other people think that we are," she said in a phone interview, with her daughter Francesca cooing in the background. "I was sure that I was going to find out that people were terrible."

Men and women were equally willing to yield seats to Smith, confounding her expectation that women would be more considerate of a mother-to-be. "It turns out chivalry is not dead," she said. Morning commuters were slightly more compassionate than those in the evening rush.