Bumping into strangers and apologizing about it

London train network can be a very very busy place during morning peak hours, who is to say it couldn’t be with around 4 million people rushing to reach their offices every day within a 2 hours range.

This happened today while heading from home to work. I was moving down the platform in Croydon station when I bumped on a lady that she was moving like a headless chicken. one minute later she grabbed my arm while I was walking and said “you should have said you are sorry” – I didn’t I actually haven’t felt I had a reason to. I recognize my error and apologize when I believe it’s the right thing to do. Should I have said “I am sorry” without meaning it just to uphold the social convention of being polite? I believe that we, all of us, should be more considerate of our actions and less bound from social
standards.

Twenty minutes later I am waiting for the tube train at London Bridge. I am now walking to take my place at the edge of the platform in London bridge northern line tube and I have bumped again on a lady. This time around it was clear it was my fault – she was on my left side – I immediately turned and said “I am so sorry” it wasn’t even a hard bump but I still felt obliged to, maybe because subconsciously I was still thinking about what happened. While I was muttering my apology she turned with a very angry face – I don’t know if she was angry because of my action or because she was pissed off in general – but she did gave me the evil eye … at least for the first tenths of the second. When she realized I had my puppy face and that I was apologizing already she broke a smile and responded “it’s ok”

I wonder if it was the apology itself or the fact that I really showed I meant it that makes a difference. So you think the result would have been the same if I just gave her a dry “sorry”

How important factor is the fact that we also kind of recognized each other (we are both at the same place on the platform almost twice a week)