For context I am in my early 40s.
When I was 18ish, I was running for a bus. I missed it by the most narrow of margins. (Also, the bus driver was kind of a dick for not sticking around when it was pretty obvious… regardless…)
As it just so happened, there was a taxi a couple cars behind that bus that saw me running for it and it driving away.
That taxi driver waved me in with nary a word, drove me a stop or two in front of the bus, and without charging me, dropped me off so I could catch the bus. (To be clear this was in an area where the bus route was LONG and the taxi driver obviously knew it’d be an hour or so before the next one.)
Ever since that day, for over two decades now, that random act of kindness has stuck in my mind. We literally never said a word beyond my panicked “THANKS” as I ran out at the end. No names, nothing, just wild gesticulations and gratitude.
Love to hear some more.
I was fresh off the plane moving to London and was lugging a massive and heavy suitcase up the stairs in the tube. Now, mind you, Londoners are exceptional commuters and I must have interrupted the proper flow, but one of them, very smartly dressed in a three piece sutie, just grabbed my suitcase with one hand, and left it up the staircase, kept on going at a brisk pace, not a single world, not a single glance. To this day, I’m not sure if it was kindness or sheer irritation at my cluelessness about Tube etiquette. Either way, it still makes me laugh every time I think about it.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago. I used to work in a hospital and at the time I had torn some ligamints in my ankle from a sprain and was kind of limping. Anyway, there was this really long hallway I was walking and carrying a box. Out of nowhere some one snatches the box out of my hands, and that freaked me out, why would some one steal a box they don’t the contents of. It took me a few seconds to process that the guy was helping me. So he slows down his pace to match mine and walked a bit in front of me without uttering a word! I just thanked him when I got to my turn and never saw him again.
A bit of both. It’s common for people will help people who are obviously struggling (luggage, prams or just mobility issues) but it also has the advantage that you get them out of the way.