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Getting home alone at night: the right reflexes

The vast majority of trips home after an evening out go well. A few simple habits are enough to make the ones that go badly shorter, and to make sure someone knows where you are.

Before you leave

• Charge your phone, or bring a small power bank. A dead phone is useless.
• Tell someone: the time you are leaving, the route you are taking, and send a message when you arrive.
• Choose your route: longer but lit and busy is better than short and deserted.
• Keep a way to get home another way: a little cash, a taxi app, the number of someone who can come and pick you up.

On foot

• Walk with a confident step, head up, phone put away.
• Use one earbud only, at low volume: you need to hear what is happening around you.
• Have your keys in your hand before you reach your door.
• If you feel you are being followed: cross the street, change direction, go into an open place. See our guide on attack or threat in the street.

On public transport

• Sit near the driver or in a carriage with other people.
• In several cities, night buses let you get off between stops, as close to home as possible: ask your transport operator.
• If a passenger is bothering you, change seats, tell the driver or staff, and report it using your transport network’s alert line.

In a taxi or ride-hailing car

• Check the licence plate, the car model and the driver’s first name before getting in.
• Sit in the back, and share your trip with someone close to you from the app.
• If the route seems wrong, ask to be let out somewhere busy.

If something feels wrong

Call your country’s emergency number (112 in Europe). If speaking is dangerous, find out whether you can reach the emergency services by text message. And don’t stay alone: an open shop, a hotel lobby or an all-night pharmacy are safe places to go.

More guides

• Which emergency number should you call?
• Attack or threat in the street
• An older relative living alone