strap hanging
n.— «Usually the truck drivers wait at the opening of the valley for a U.S. Army patrol to pass and then they follow it, a practice soldiers have dubbed “strap hanging.” Lining the sides of the road are the remains of scorched trucks belonging to drivers too impatient to wait for an informal escort.» —“‘They Feel Like Outsiders and They Don’t Want to Be’” by Greg Jaffe Washington Post Oct. 6, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
I first heard this term in the Navy. I was told it derives from the ropes, or “straps,” that run round the side of an inflatable liferaft. If the raft is too full, survivors in the water can hang onto the straps. It signifies someone who is not involved in or contributing to something, but still gets some benefit from it — someone who’s just along for the ride.
I heard this many years ago when living in NYC. It referred to people riding the subways or busses where all the seats were occupied and people grabbed leather straps that hung from racks mounted on the ceilings so they wouldn’t fall over when the vehicles came to quick stops or accelerated too quickly.