Something that sticks in my mind from over thirty years ago, when we lived in a (really rather nice) road near Lewisham station. Further up from our flat, there was a university hall of residence. One evening as I came out of the little lane by the station onto the main road, I was accosted by a young woman, who asked me whether I was walking up Granville Park and if so, would I walk home with her? Some incident had recently occurred - obviously not scary enough to put me off getting out of the house and going to work - and apparently the female students had been told that they were not to walk up our road on their own after dark.
So hanging around on a street corner and nabbing complete strangers to escort them home was a better idea then?

. Goodness only knows how long she had been there; it wasn't late, but it had been dark for quite a while...
The irony of her asking another woman, not that much older, who was just about to walk up said 'too dangerous to walk up on your own' road,
on her own, wasn't lost on me, but presumably had been on both the student and her advisors.
Moral of the tale, keep your own wits about you

.
Ours have used public transport to get to secondary school from the outset and we have encouraged them to do things like go to the public library after school / stop off in town on the way home if they want to buy something (rather than come home and wait to be taken out by one of us), etc. From about year 9, DS1 used to hang out with friends on a Saturday evening, initially only until a reasonable 'supper time', but eventually graduating to the odd visit to one of the local night clubs between A levels and departing for university.