This evening I did something I'd never do in an Australian city.
But the household still needed food. So after my husband came home from school I went and did some of my errands and went to Curves for good measure. Back here I told you that I do most of my grocery shopping on my bike. At the moment, though, the sun is going down quite early - 4.30 it was today, I believe. So, by the time I finished my chores at around 5.30, it was quite dark.
I would never consider riding my bike to do errands in the dark in an Australian city. And yet I felt quite safe here in one of the largest cities in the world! Amazing.
4 comments:
Here, too. It's really safe to be out and about. There is petty theft (cell phones, wallets) but not a ton of big crime.
I walk around Blacktown at all times of day, even after midnight. When I take library books back I sometimes do it in the evening, walking right through the main street and past the railway station. This is supposed to be dangerous. But I suppose what an older man can get away with might be difficult for a younger woman.
Ken, you can call me a younger woman any day. I don't think being an older woman would make me feel any safer, though. Perhaps it is those four formative years I spent at uni with the campus "rape" (otherwise known as Safety) bus making its nightly rounds that has made me nervous about Australian cities.
Where and when you move around a city is influenced by your vision of its threats and possibilities. Jan was doing HSC marking at Homebush and would catch the train home to Blacktown about 10 pm. Security guards insisted on accompanying her to the train station. The other markers were shocked that she would take public transport. There are students at her school who have never been on a train in their life. Some, at 17 are unable to take part in school excursions because their parents won't let them take public transport.
There was a woman speaking in Sydny recently who is famous for letting her 10 year old son take the subway in New York. Most people are moving somewhere around the city at most times of day and night. Most survive. It's not as dangerous as the news shows it to be.
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