I'm pretty safe where I live, most people in my neighborhood know me and my father and don't bother us and we don't them, if they do I got means of protecting myself so no worries here.

See, I'd rather be already on guard when the more horrible parts of the world accost me! Personally I'm reluctant to wear footwear that you can't climb a mountain wearing. I object to trainers on aesthetic grounds but at least you can move quickly in them.

I live a 5 minute drive outside of Reading, PA. Drive through the city to work everyday. It's pretty consistently been in the top ten of crime per capita in the US for the past decade or so.


That said, I feel safe. I drive through a couple sketchy neighborhoods on my drive to and from work but I always smile and wave to the people I see in the same places, such as bus stops, everyday. Talk to one of the school crossing guards everyday I get the red light at his intersection. I wouldn't want to walk down those streets at night, though. Downtown is ok at night if you stay within a certain area. Maybe it's just me though, I know plenty of people that don't like going into the city if they can, avoid it. As long as you keep your head about you, make sure you don't get into the less savory areas, and don't invite any attention you'll be fine.


The neighborhood I live in outside of the city proper is plenty safe. Mostly older folks on my block.

I live in one of the safest places in the country now, so yes. I lived in Chicago for 16-17 years previously, and I felt safe there too, albeit less so than I do now. That's just living in a big city, though. I never felt "unsafe" there. Now I live in a suburb of Chicago that is considered by many entities that anolyze such things to be the safest city in the state, and in the top 10 safest cities in the country. A lot of people rarely even lock their doors there and there's pretty much no violent crime ever. It's not nearly as exciting, but we moved so our kid would have a good place to grow up and play outside without us needing to keep tabs every second of every day.

Ha, I have a similar objection to flip-flops. I don't like the idea of footwear in which I'll be totally screwed if I find myself needing to do anything but casually stroll over perfectly flat terrain. My wife loves them and says they're comfortable. I personally don't find constantly needing to curl my toes to prevent my shoes from falling off to be terribly comfortable, but to each their own, I guess.

I live in a condo complex that has mostly older people and very few kids, so it's almost Brady Bunch/Leave it to Beaver safe. I haven't seen Eddie Haskell around though...

Mostly, yes. I live in the middle of nowhere, with forests of all sides of me. The most I ever have to endure is idiotic teens going back the old logging road behind my house and drinking and then coming back out and squealing wheels/revving engines at 3 in the morning.

Spike strips are your friend.

Not even for loved ones? I'm not sure if I envy that or not.

I feel safe. Half the time we leave our back door unlocked. And it's not like the back door is hard to get to either. We have no fence so the back door is easily accessed from the street. I always feel embarrassed when I discover this (usually after weeks of having left it unlocked). But in the thirteen years we've lived here (in the Portland, Oregon area) no stranger has tried to come in. We also keep bicycles and other stuff lying around the backyard and no one has ever stolen a thing.

I live in a small 3br home in a suburb 45 minutes from Jacksonville, Florida. I have an alarm system and a shotgun in my closet. Do I feel safe? No. Safety is an illusion that makes us complacent. The moment you allow yourself to feel safe is the moment you allow the possibility of danger to enter your life.

Be on the look out for clowns people. They want you and any children you might have.

I knew it. They always gave me a vibe that they were evil. I should have listened to Fritz the family Dachshund since he could not stand them and would pee on any of them if in range.

I really feel safe nowhere. I just maintain being alert at all times. Though I suspect most of that stems from my own involvement with things outside the realm of civility and law. I'm thankful everyday I escaped that life, but the ripples from it are everlasting.

@charon711 - Good post.

I really wish I could feel as safe as I did ten years ago. Back then there were familiar faces around me and a whole nother atmosphere in general. I′ve always kept a couple of tools on me because I live out in a very rural area but now I have a defensive purpose in mind for them as well. Not that I′m legally allowed to defend my own life in any way, shape or form but my right to defend myself against unprovoked attacks stand above any written law imo.

-Stay safe, everyone!

And watch out for Pennywise!

Yes, I live in one of the safest places in the world.


In saying that, break ins and robberies are more common than they probably should be. As well as there being a serious drug problem here.

This reflects my opinion on the matter. As a male, my city is pretty safe overall, as to say walking the streets at night. Though recently women have been being groped and/or exposed to a man mastvrbating in parks but they now have one person in jail. (A young man.) There may be a second man but it's unclear at this point.

But I absolutely agree, there are many idiots on the roads, and as one who rides a bicycle everywhere he goes, I've almost been run down by bad drivers or see stupidity every time I go out on my bike. It's freaking scary! Several people have been killed in the last little while, both pedestrians and cyclists. The pedestrians where even crossing at marked crosswalks when struck down. I've never had a drivers license, and I seem to know the motor vehicle act better than people who do. They seem to forget, a bicycle is vehicle, and has the same rights and obligations as a car. People have been "doing wrong" for so long, wrong has become right in their minds. Other cyclists piss me off as much as bad drivers. Though they wont kill me if they hit me like a motor vehicle will. (Excluding extreme circumstances.)

Seen a few cyclist run right through stop sign.

Streets in Austin werw narrowed to make bicycle lanes.. Pedestrians barely look both ways before crossing. To be honest everyone likes to think they own the road until they get killed.

I've noticed that there seems to be a bit of a "cyclists vs. everyone else" on the roads. And on the pavements for that matter, where cyclists aren't meant to cycle but do so anyway. They were certainly the biggest menace when I worked in London, and though the least lethal of other road users they were the most aggressive, and in my life as a pedestrian I had quite a lot of abuse from cyclists and was assaulted twice, on both occasions by a cyclist who was doing something they shouldn't have been doing (I mean other than punching me).

Then again, I know that life as a cyclist can be pretty tough. I was seriously pretty bummed out when I heard my sister's best friend from school was killed in a cycling accident in London. It actually made the front pages but I wonder if anyone learnt anything.

you must live in a good area, most people I know from Oregon have a ton of theft and other meth related crimes everywhere it seems. Nowadays that encompasses almost all rural communities too.

my home's safe. avoiding drugs and people that use them or tolerate them, along with some common sense, avoids 99% of the issues around here. there's still theft, break-ins, assault, domestics, etc., all around, but it seems like it's not ever just random, it's mostly from people that know each other.

No one really does.

People here still try to cross an interstate highway at night by foot.

I live in what I call a "nice ghetto" area. What I mean by that is even though it's ghetto as hell, it's relatively safe. Everyone knows each other, but that doesn't mean I trust everyone or feel safe. I know at any moment there can be break in's, usually by teenagers. Other than that I feel safe by locking windows and doors at all times.

Well my town is safer then 99% of the United States so... Yes, I definitely feel safe where I live. Literally, no crime happens here except for speeding.

It probably says something about where I live that I spend more time avoiding horses than cyclists on the roads. Speed past a cyclist, and at worst, the gust of air as you pass him will throw him to the ground. Speed past a horse, and the [censored] will freak out and then there's a ton of meat coming through the side of your car.

There is that: horses are unpredictable, dangerous and smelly creatures. Another thing that needed some attention was the red deer that had a tendency to wander around in the road during my morning commute through Essix, which were big enough to cause quite serious damage should a collision happen, though mostly they were distracted from the roads by the temptation of eating the contents of people's gardens.