Do women walk alone at night

[aDayattheLido]

Do you?
Do women you know?

DNiece is at university. She came to visit me the other weekend. Her train back to uni was going to arrive after dark. I gave her some money for a taxi from the station to her halls. She said "oh I'll just walk" (but still took the £20 🙂). She says she walks back from the library and her part time job.

Is this normal or do women walk in pairs/packs or get a taxi?

(btw This was discussed on another thread but before anyone cries "TAAT" I'm just interested in chatting about it further)

I don’t deliberately go out for night walks but I do if I have to- walking to/from station after a night out is probably my most common reason. I try to stick to well lit routes and busier roads- tbh although I don’t feel 100% safe it feels safer than a taxi (not in London, I trust black cabs).

Absolutely not.

I always have. Our daughters do. I think to an extent it depends on where you are as walking to a neighbours house half a mile away down an unlit country track you know well and where the only thing watching you is the children opposite’s pony is very different from a slightly drunken walk home at 3am, along a route with alleyways and industrial estates in Middlesbrough. It’s about assessing the risk, surely.
Different if your a middle aged woman in a Barbour with a dog than a twenty something younger woman in a miniskirt. Different if your drunk. Different if there is likely to be others around or it’s too far from others to have weirdos hanging around. Shouldn’t be, but is.

I'm the complete opposite. The fewer men around, the lower the risk. Deserted areas are, by definition, safer than populated ones.

If I got a taxi home just because it was dark every night of the week there’d practically be no point me going out to work 🤣

If it’s late late I might take the main road road walk back from the station instead of the less lit short cut but that would be the only concession I’d be making.

Yes. Like pp I'll avoid parks or isolated areas, but as I live in London the streets are rarely empty. I have a number of hobbies that my friends do not share, and I refuse to give them up just because of having no one to walk with.

I do and always have. The chances of something happening to you are very small and I don't want to live in fear.

Generally yes but it depends where and how late. You have to use your common sense.

I do. My aunt was raped and murdered in the afternoon in her own garden. Terrible things can happen anywhere so no point worrying. I don't want fear to rule my life in anyway.

Taxis aren't necessarily safer, unfortunately.

Do you never go out after dark?

How do you not know that women go out alone?

I always have. I used to do home care and walk between each house, then get the bus and walk ten minutes home, around 11pm. I dog walked at all hours. I go to London and after going to the theatre used to do late night bus rides. St Paul's cathedral at 1am on a frosty night is beautiful. The knife crime is what I worry about. I don't know any women who won't walk around in the dark. My adult DD's and their friends do, they walk home from work, from local pubs etc.

Yes. I won't fear something that might not happen.

Yes I do.

There's usually not another option available- you say walk in pairs but unless you're living together, once 1 woman gets to her house the other still has to go on alone?

Taxis etc are very expensive and unfeasible for most people to get door to door, plus as others have pointed out not necessarily safer. If you get public transport you still have to get from the drop off point to your home!

Also it gets dark so early in winter if you avoided being alone outside after dark you'd be stuck home from 4pm!

It's dark at 4.30pm in the depths of winter.

Of course I walk in the dark! Otherwise how would I get anywhere when it's not the height of summer?

I think our assessment of risk does depend on the location, time of evening, etc as well as our own experiences or things we've heard from friends and family.

I used to walk across campus alone at night as a student, despite hearing reports of rapes and assaults on campus. Now I look back on it, I think some of the risks I took in my early 20s, I'd be much more cautious about now. One of my friends in her 30s recently got sexually assaulted walking home at night in Cambridge and she never felt unsafe before that. These days I'm much more wary.

I have done it out of necessity but I don’t like to walk alone at night so do so very rarely.

I walk home from
Work after dark. I live to close to drive. It's a busy area. Doesn't bother me.

I always walk alone and all hours of the night pretty much always have

I avoid alleyways, and wouldn't usually be out alone in the quietest 1-4am time, though I used to be. I'm always happy to walk past houses, and I'll change route to pick the busiest option. It seems very limiting to think you can't walk anywhere past 4pm, I'm really sorry for those who are that frightened.

I always have. It started when I started at high school because if I wouldn’t walk in the dark I wouldn’t have got home from school in winter! I haven’t done it recently because I have babies and a car, and no real need to be out, but I would think twice in town if the idiots who want to turn off streetlights got their way.

Yes, I walk alone in the dark. Always have, and I'm in my 60s now. Perfectly happy in lonely rural locations without streetlights, that's where I live. Very safe, there's no one there!
Was fine when I lived down south and would go up to London every week for an evening course, walked back to the train between 10pm and midnight. Would be less happy wandering city streets at 3 or 4am, probably asking for trouble in some parts of the UK these days.

I do and have lived in London all my life. I always stick to well-lit areas and would avoid areas that are isolated or that I don't know well. I have gone under the local subway at night, because it is well-used.

Unfortunately I feel that the risks are different for different age groups. For example, I do hear of teenage boys being robbed in my local area, even in broad day light, but I never hear of adults being victims of similar crimes. I live in an area of London that would be regarded as relatively safe.

I do - but only in selected areas - I will take a longer route to avoid an area known for violent attacks on men and women; and I totally avoid all areas near an area known for sexual assaults on women.

True that it gets dark earlier in winter of course, but the OP asked about walking ‘at night’ rather than ‘in the dark’. There is a difference! As others have said, many of us will have to walk somewhere in the dark in winter, because it’s dark so early.

The difference where I live is that there will still be plenty of people out and about at 5 or 6pm, even though it’s dark. By 10pm, the streets here are pretty deserted, so I feel a lot less safe walking alone then.