Why don't people give up their seats to the needy?

My DGC's always give up seats without being asked and thank the driver as we get off.
A couple of years ago on a trip to London I was offered assistance with the suitcase (had 2 wee ones in tow) and then once on the tube two young men immediately rose and offered seats. It wasn't because of a lack of seats but because they thought we'd prefer to sit together instead of being spread over 3 separate seats!
Going by accent and appearance I'd say they were Londoners.

I got on the Tube on Thursday, it was the start of the evening rush hour and the train was crowded but a young man (City type) immediately offered me his seat.
Actually I've had both young women and men offer me a seat. (The latest one plus the one before, (young woman) both sounded English, BTW.) I'm 67 and am told I look like I'm in my mid-50s!
Manners seem to be better on the Tube than on buses, IME. And the issue of children sitting while adults stand has them frothing at the mouth on Mumsnet, on both sides of the argument.
As a Londoner travelling on the buses in the 60s I recall the conductor would tell a child who paid half-fare to get up for an adult. And adults weren't backward in asking you to move too.

That is exactly what I think when I get offered a seat in front of my older friends!!!!

It must be my white hair and wrinkles.

Very upsetting when fit people sit in seats reserved for those who need a seat. Here the seats are a different colour and pictures illustrate there use if you don't understand the language.

Then we have those who feel their bag needs a seat. This is particularly annoying on the shuttle bus to and from the airport terminal where there are very limited seats. To see someone trying to cope with a young child and bags or a person with crutches or is elderly standing whilst some selfish person has their large bag (often bigger than allowed) on the seat. Incredible.

My oh and I booked seats on a gwr train for a wheelchair space and carer seat. When we got on the carer seat was occupied, my oh pointed out that this was reserved for him (he is disabled as well) and asked the young woman in it to move, she refused so he gave her a choice, move or he'd sit on her lap, all 20 stone of him. She made the right choice!

I do not think it any worse that it has always been. Back in 1971 when I was commuting to London on the tube and heavily pregnant I was never once offered a seat. Nor when I began to have a very heavy nosebleed on the train and had insufficient tissues, was I offered either anything to help staunch the bleeding nor a seat to sit on while I did so. I was left to stumble up the escalator and find the First Aid post at Waterloo by myself.

Thanks to the good old Freedom Pass I use buses a lot around here, an area with a very diverse population and masses of foreign students thrown in. And I must say that the people most frequently plonking themselves in disabled seats, when there are plenty elsewhere, are very often young or non Brit, and frequently both.

I understand that disability is not always obvious, but when you see people,moving fast enough on and off the bus, you do have to wonder.
More than once, when someone evidently in real need of those seats has got on, and the 'plonkers' are showing no signs of moving, I have suggested that they do. Nobody has yet refused, but I would obviously prefer not to have to say it.
I have to assume that at least some of the non Brits don't understand the signs, or like to pretend they don't, though you'd think they'd be obvious enough.

Witzend you are so lucky to have the Freedom Pass, outside London we don't have it and I get very cross when MPs say it is a benefit all older people have. They may work in London but are often from other parts of the UK. They should know better.