After Lorenz Lang wrote in commenting on the gift ebooklet that you receive when you sign up for the free safety tips on this TiptoeingToTranquility.com site, I thought about modifying his responses into an interview format.
Instead, I’d like you to read it in a more “pure form.” It’s a quick read, but it will give you more to think about with regards to your personal safety on a bus.
In the ebooklet and in this “article,” we refer to bus stop safety, but you should generalize these principles in other areas of your life. Sure, you could generalize the tips to other forms of travel, like traveling by train, but I hope that you’ll take it further.
When you read the advice about making sure that someone doesn’t stop at your bus stop, you can generalize the principle to taking steps to make sure that someone doesn’t follow you. You develop a principle of not giving away your clue to your intended destination or next move.
Anyway, let’s get right to Lorenz’s tips….
I just read the gift eBooklet and agree with everything Keith wrote.
Additionally, I’d like to mention services that walk you home either personally or at least on the phone.
Next, in Germany, you have to press a button to signal the driver you want to get out at the next stop.
If this is the case I’d wait to see if somebody else presses “my” button, so I don’t have to telegraph my intentions to use the next stop.
If I get a hinky feeling, I even might fake leaving to see if I’m right.
In both cases the bus already left.
I think this is the time that is the most dangerous!
While waiting for the bus, a potential attacker knows that the bus will arrive any time soon. He can not be sure to have the time to complete his attack.
The bus driver and other passengers will certainly call the police, record the attacker on their smartphones, be available as witness…all bad for the criminal.
So, I’d put an emphasis on this part of the bus travel, although the title bus-stop safety somewhat excludes the way from the bus-stop to the destination…
What? You haven’t read the Bus Stop Safety Tips ebooklet, yet?
Sign up to the Safety Newsletter. (This free ebooklet that you get on bus stop safety will definitely add to your awareness arsenal. Start thinking differently about your own safety.)
And if you want to read a story where there’s a “master at staying safe,” check out Tiptoeing to Tranquility: The Parable for Finding Safety and Comfort in Dangerous Times.