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Bull_Rider's avatar
Bull_Rider
Explorer
Oct 31, 2014

Big Cities, what areas are safe?

I don't want this to be a thread about Second Amendment rights, or how big of a shotgun is needed to be safe. And I don't mean for this question to have any racial implications. It's just a question about safety while traveling in metro areas.

I was channel surfing and I started watching a program called. "Gang Wars, Oakland". Pretty scary stuff. I started to wonder how do you know what areas are "safe" for RVers to drive through or visit? We are planning on visiting San Francisco in a couple of months. Oakland is right next door. I could see how we could get routed through an area with our GPS that could be high risk. How do you know what areas to avoid?

Have any of you found yourselves in an area where you didn't feel safe? How did you respond? Did you turn around and drive back out the way you came in? Did you continue?

It seems that every city has areas that areless safe for most residents. The locals know where those areas are, and they don't go there. But what about RVer's that are just visiting?

We love museums, and it's common for us to punch the address for a museum into the GPS and drive there without doing a recon of the route. I wonder if that's ill advised.

I wondered if there was an app. for a smart phone, something like, "Don't Go There Dude". We live in an agricultural area in Washington State and we can pretty much drive wherever we like without being at risk. But I don't think that you can say the same for South Los Angles, or Oakland, or ???

I would like to avoid confrontations with local citizens, I don't want to put my wife or I at risk by being uninformed. I don't want to get into a shootout with multiple assailants.

I understand that any area can be dangerous, by just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and advice.

55 Replies

  • Real simple. Stop at a local Walmart, if you feel uncomfortable walking around in the store move on. I think you will find most Walmart stores in bad areas don't allow over night camping. You have to judge your own comfort zone. Don't mean this to be about Walmart. You can do the same in any grocery store, or any shopping center in an area. JMHO
  • Living close to LA there are bad areas, but I travel for work to most major cities, in the US and just about any other Country you can think of. Having said that, I have always gone by gut feelings, if you feel uncomfortable, don't stop, keep driving right on through. I doubt anyone will bother you if you are passing through, or at least that has been my experience. I was in Seattle once and ended up in Rainer Valley. While it does not look like your typical ghetto, it is a gang infested, and I knew right away from peoples mannerisms I did not want to stop there. I drove through, no problem. Just be aware of your surroundings, and if something does not feel right, it probably isn't. I will say this, how many times on the news have heard people say "This just doesn't happen around here"? Crime can happen anywhere.
  • We've not run into any problems. Did get worried when we were going into a new park in Bakersfield, CA (River Run Rv Park). The drive in was thru an industrial area and it was night....no one on the streets. It was rather eerie. BUT, once in the park it was delightful. From then on, we do a google EARTH search and SEE what the area is like. If it's run down and crappy, then we stay away. My SIL travels all over the world, she does Google Earth to look at the locations she might be in......she's changed reservations a # of times.
  • When this has happened to us, we turn around and go back the same way we came in. I kind of get the feeling that we are in the wrong area and act accordingly. We have never had any problems that has affected us where there was danger to us. It does not have to be a large area either, we have seen problem areas that were small towns. JMO

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