SafeNight is a walking app that helps pedestrians find safer routes at night. It scores each street segment on five factors: street lighting, crime density, road type, nearby activity and isolation. Darkness depends on the time you walk, so scores change with it. It suggests alternative routes with turn-by-turn navigation, runs on Android and the web, and has a free tier.
What does SafeNight score?
Each street segment is scored on five factors, estimated from public data. The factors are combined into a route score from 0 to 100, where a higher score means a safer route.
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Street lighting: mapped lamps and lit tags. Where lighting is not mapped, it is estimated from the type of street and marked as estimated.
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Crime density: recent police-reported crime nearby, weighted by severity, so violent crime counts for more than theft.
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Road type: main roads are generally safer for walking than footpaths and alleys.
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Nearby activity: open places, CCTV cameras and transit stops close by.
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Isolation: how far a path is from roads and buildings, and whether it is a dead end. A remote path can be riskier after dark even when it is lit.
How does the time I walk change the score?
Darkness is worked out from the position of the sun at the time and place you walk, not from a fixed night-time schedule. A street that is daylit at 3 pm can be dark by 10 pm, and the score follows that. Whether a shop or café is open is also checked for the time you walk, in London time.
You can choose Leave now, Leave at or Arrive by. For Arrive by, SafeNight works back from your arrival time to estimate when you start. Each route shows a timeline with its darkness at the start and at the destination: daylight, dusk, dark by arrival, or dark from the start.
How is crime counted?
SafeNight uses street-level crime data from the UK Police data portal. Each crime is weighted by its category. Crime is also compared with how many people are likely to be around, so a busy high street is not marked down simply for having more reported theft. Violent crime and robbery are never discounted this way. Police street data gives the month but not the time of day, so crime is not weighted by hour.
Where does the data come from?
Crime data comes from the UK Police data portal, which covers England and Wales. Lighting, road, CCTV, shop and transit information comes from OpenStreetMap, read through the Overpass API. Walking directions use OSRM and place search uses Nominatim. Crime data is only available where that portal publishes it, so scores are not available in every area. See the FAQ for more on coverage.
How are routes chosen?
SafeNight searches for several walking routes, including the most direct one, and ranks them. The ranking weighs how risky a route is against how long it is. A longer route is only recommended when it is clearly safer, because the extra distance counts against it. Routes more than twice as long as the shortest route are not recommended.
Why can a safer route be longer?
Safety is part of the search, not just an afterthought. A route that avoids dark, isolated or higher-risk streets can be longer than the most direct one. SafeNight shows how much longer and how much safer it is, so you can decide.
How do I read the score?
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Score and label: a number from 0 to 100, with a label such as Very Safe, Safe, Moderate or Use Caution.
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Reason: on the recommended route, a line comparing it with the next best option, such as how much longer it is and how much higher it scores.
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Lighting: marked as Verified, Mostly mapped or Estimated. Estimated lighting is drawn as dashed lines on the map.
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Weakest stretch: the longest run of higher-risk street on a route, shown as a callout on the map when it is at least 50 metres.
What happens when data is missing?
If crime data cannot be retrieved, the route shows a "Crime data unavailable" notice. SafeNight does not treat a missing crime feed as a clean record. Scores in areas with thin mapping, or outside England and Wales, rely more on estimates, so treat them with extra care.
What can't the score tell you?
A score is an estimate built from public data. It can be incomplete or out of date, and it does not guarantee that a route is safe. Compare the plans or read the FAQ.
Guidance only: scores are estimates from public data and do not guarantee safety. In an emergency call 999.