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Egress goes both ways. Streets with no hiding places nor alleys to flee down tend to be safer. Also, a street lit well in some pockets but not others ruins ni

by xapata 6y ago

Egress goes both ways. Streets with no hiding places nor alleys to flee down tend to be safer. Also, a street lit well in some pockets but not others ruins night vision and creates hiding places. A residential street with lights on at every door might look nice at night but may also be worse for safety. Except for the psychological deterrence of "people live here, are home, and care enough to leave the light on."

mumblemumble 6y ago
I can't seem to find the paper, but there was a study conducted in my city that found that, beyond a certain point, more lighting makes people feel safer, but seems to also be associated with more crime. As I recall, they didn't really figure out the reason for that, but the paper suggested one potential problem is that adding lights simultaneously ruins people's dark vision and creates more shadows to hide in. One other hypothesis I'd want to rule out before drawing any big conclusions is that law-abiding citizens aren't the only ones who know that people choose the more brightly lit streets when walking at night. My own personal best guess is that, if there's any relationship, it's non-causative. I'm guessing that what muggers actually prefer is areas with low foot traffic, and it just happens to be that places with less foot traffic also tend to have fewer lights.
- xapata 6y ago
  Muggers need low traffic, but not no traffic. One neighborhood I lived in had so little traffic I felt perfectly safe. It was an area criminals went to flee after their crimes, not to commit crimes. Amusingly, I'd run into more film crews than any other sort of people out walking. The neighborhood made for a good scene background. In contrast, the college student slum near my university had high foot traffic. From my biased sample, I estimated that 1/10 student residents of that neighborhood were mugged in a 4-year period.

by xapata 6y ago

mumblemumble 6y ago

I can't seem to find the paper, but there was a study conducted in my city that found that, beyond a certain point, more lighting makes people feel safer, but seems to also be associated with more crime. As I recall, they didn't really figure out the reason for that, but the paper suggested one potential problem is that adding lights simultaneously ruins people's dark vision and creates more shadows to hide in. One other hypothesis I'd want to rule out before drawing any big conclusions is that law-abiding citizens aren't the only ones who know that people choose the more brightly lit streets when walking at night. My own personal best guess is that, if there's any relationship, it's non-causative. I'm guessing that what muggers actually prefer is areas with low foot traffic, and it just happens to be that places with less foot traffic also tend to have fewer lights.

xapata 6y ago
Muggers need low traffic, but not no traffic. One neighborhood I lived in had so little traffic I felt perfectly safe. It was an area criminals went to flee after their crimes, not to commit crimes. Amusingly, I'd run into more film crews than any other sort of people out walking. The neighborhood made for a good scene background. In contrast, the college student slum near my university had high foot traffic. From my biased sample, I estimated that 1/10 student residents of that neighborhood were mugged in a 4-year period.