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Fear of crime, victimisation and physical injury can significantly impact on an individual’s quality of life. This is particularly so for women and the elderly for whom this fear can act as a social control by significantly limiting mobility. The City Council has attempted to gain insight into how safe residents feel in the City by regularly including questions in its Annual Survey of Residents on traffic, street lighting and the Central City. Over recent years responses to questions on safety have remained relatively consistent with most concern focusing on safety for cyclists and public safety within the Central City at night.
The 1996 survey showed that many respondents thought travelling around main roads in the City was safe (42 percent) or very safe (5 percent). However, 18 percent thought that suburban roads were dangerous to travel on and two percent thought they were very dangerous.
Over half the respondents to the 1996 survey (cyclists and non-cyclists) thought travelling around the City on a bicycle was not a particularly safe activity. Forty three percent said riding a bicycle was dangerous and 13 percent said it was very dangerous. In contrast, there was much less concern about pedestrian safety in relation to traffic. The majority of respondents thought walking in the City was safe (61 percent) or very safe (6 percent).
Street lighting did not appear to be of major concern to respondents. Forty six percent thought that all (6 percent) or most (40 percent) main roads were lit adequately for pedestrians. Eleven percent said few (9 percent) or no (3 percent) roads were lit adequately for pedestrians. While 27 percent said they did not go walking after dark. Eighty-two percent of respondents said that they have not been prevented from going anywhere in the City at night through lack of street lighting.
The 1996 survey showed that the majority of respondents (69 percent) did not feel safe by themselves in the central city at night. In contrast, only 11 percent indicated that they felt unsafe alone in the central city during the day. Parts of the City frequently identified as unsafe at night include Cathedral Square, Latimer Square and Manchester Street.