I have done this more times than I can count. People with strollers trying to get up subway stairs, very often expect those around them to help, and usually someone does.
Just a part of city life
One time in London (in the Tube, if I remember it correctly) I actually saw somebody telling somebody else off for just passing them on the stairs and not helping.
If you are person expecting others to help you with that, then sorry, you're weird. It is always nice if someone just does and yes, often someone does help, doesn't matter of they don't acknowledge your existence or strike up a friendly chat.
I'd never willingly get myself into a situation thinking, "eh, I'll be screwed if no one comes to my help, but someone surely will".
humans only exist because of community and helping others.
Make subways without stairs.
Almost all of the 430+ subway stations in New York also have elevators. Many also have escalators.
It’s much quicker to go up the stairs, which is why others are helpful.
This is shocking to people who live in the suburbs. People in big cities are used to being around people and understand that they are "neighbors" to all people around them. Suburbanites are terrified of strangers and cities because they can't fathom not driving a 4-ton SUV to a parking lot as a precursor to anything in life.
Exactly this! Cities have such a bad reputation for being impersonal and anonymous, but in reality that just means people here are way more willing to trust strangers.
A few months ago my partner and I were struggling to parallel park late in the evening (we rarely drive, that day was an exception where we borrowed his mom's car to transport some larger items) and a random guy saw us struggle and offered to help. We absolutely took him up on it, so he got in the driver's seat and parked the car for us. Then he got out, we thanked him and he continued on his way like it was the most normal thing ever. The fact that he could have just driven off probably didn't cross anyone's mind haha
This is the way
This is such a typical NYC thing. Same happened to me when dragging heavy luggage from the subway to an elevated track while the heat wave was going on and the escalators and lifts were broken. Dude just grabbed one end of the bag and helped without a word and kept walking
Yep, that's NYC, the people are awesome.
As in introvert this is exactly how I envision most of my ideal interactions working.
I have done this before but I was sure to make a hand motion imitating lifting and raised eyebrows first, and wait for a nod. No matter how much someone's struggling I'm not going to assume their ok with me touching their stuff or putting my hand near their kid. We goblins can't be too careful.
Well that’s fucking depressing
Southerners are the worst of all worlds, from what I've heard.
So...?
It's a nice anecdote?
I did this today with the crazy snow we got in New england.. my neighbor is dumb and left his cars on the street. We got 22+ inches of snow. He has a shovel, I have a snow blower. While he was shoveling I just joined him and moved all his snow in 1/4 the time. I didn't say anything. He thanked me and I nodded.
A few years ago, I was walking around a busy mall with my father and we were walking towards the escalators to go down to the first floor. As we got closer I saw a mom with a young boy on her hip and a slightly older daughter, probably not more than 6 years old, at the top.
I could see that the daughter was very reluctant to get on the escalator even though her mom was trying to encourage her. The mom stepped onto the escalator while holding her daughter's hand but the daughter didn't step after her and just stood frozen. Naturally, the mom had to let go of her daughter's hand lest she end up physically dragging her daughter onto the escalator. Now the mom was at the bottom of the escalator and the kid was stuck at the top.
I was now behind the kid, aware that there were other people behind me who wanted to use the escalator. And I could see the worried mom at the bottom. In those few seconds, I realised that the mom was probably stuck on what to do. Either she takes the escalator back up hoping her daughter is still there when she gets to the top or she tries to get her daughter to go down the escalator herself while her mom can watch her from the bottom. Neither option was ideal. So the solution my brain came up with in that moment was to just pick up the kid and ride the escalator down while holding her. In the time it took for us to get to the bottom I realised I just picked up a kid without even warning them or getting some form of permission from the kid or the mom.
Thankfully the kid did not squirm while I was holding her. I was so embarrassed when I got to the bottom I put the kid down in front of her mom, nodded to the mom and walked away. It probably helped put her mom at ease that I am woman, but still. Imagine a stranger just picking up your kid.
I could probably have moved the kid away from the escalators entrance and just waited for the mom to make her way back up, but in that moment my brain took the most straightforward route of 'get kid to mom'. But I'm sure if I had moved the kid out of line of sight of her mom they both would have been way more anxious about the situation. The kid being able to see her mom the whole time was probably why she didn't squirm while I was holding her on the way down.
Wherever they are, I hope that kid learned to use escalators by now.
I'm noticing more and more commuters on my bus rides that regularly take the same line. I almost want to point it out and finally say hello but my introversion is strong.
Also people are looking for romantic partners on the busses? I never would have guessed but my city has a insta account dedicated to "Missed Connections" and people are blowing it up searching for Mr. Right lol
Maybe I don't recommend it, but my bus love story is cute so I'll share. Moved from a small town to a big (ish) city for college and took the bus every day. So did one of my neighbors who I recognized to be from a neighboring small town. Whenever the bus was busy we'd sit together, and nearby if not. We are both SUPER introverted but after a year we knew each other pretty well. She would try to catch pokemon when the bus would slow down which was always an exciting moment. Then when YuGiOh Dual Links came out we were both playing it non-stop (I wish that game didn't power creep so much, or I'd still be playing it).
Anyway, we'd sometimes run into each other on walks and then walk together. Share baked goods and all that. But YuGiOh was what actually gave us an excuse to hang out (so we could play each other). We were both busy with college and so we had "the talk" where we basically both said we weren't interested in a romantic relationship at the time. I think we both meant it, but somehow it made us relax around each other more. Suddenly we were best friends (with benefits), going out to eat, doing homework together, making sure we took the same bus as much as possible. It was really easy and not a demanding thing. We both knew we were busy and had goals, we just also tried to spend time together when we could. After probably four months of that we realized we were in love and just pretending we were too busy for commitment. Nothing changed and today we're happily married and still working hard on our careers. But we play Magic The Gathering now.
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