oomis: Yes, that’s it (I’m a teenager). I emphasized “women” because you said “young” :).
I think it’s just a basic menschlichkeit issue when it’s with people of the same gender. I mean, I guess it depends on where you live (you bump into way more people in Brooklyn than in Monsey) but it’s still just a nice thing to do.
I’m fine with people ignoring me (I mean, if they ignore me, I ignore them 🙂 ), but my only thought about the guy crossing the street was that baruch Hashem there wasn’t a car at that moment…