Related: I took a late (~11 pm) transbay bus home a few nights ago (San Francisco to Berkeley), and in between some stops, the bus driver started scream, "Put y' phones up! Put y' phones away! Turn 'em off and put 'em away!" and then repeated that several times.
The passengers and I looked at each other like "WTF?" (Is this a plane now?) but since she seemed rather adamant, and wasn't going to go on to the next stop until we complied, we all put our phones away. Then the driver said, "I'm just trying to warn you here, people outside can see you on y' phones, you has to watch out."
Then, at the stop, some teens got on that looked sort of sketchy, and it occurred to me, "The driver was trying to warn us not to show our smartphones because she thought the people at the next stop would try to steal them."
Of course, I still thought it was overkill because the kids didn't look nearly dangerous enough for me to worry about my safety or possessions (though they did flout the bus rules), and there were enough people on the bus that a criminal wouldn't want to try anything, but it got me to think about a risk that I hadn't before.
I've been reading that there's recently been a huge increase in phone-snatching on the NYC subway, much of it quite brazen (grab phone while person is using it, jump out door, run).
Maybe your driver was just paranoid, but on the other hand, maybe she's seen the stats...
Well, I live in rural Germany and the trains I am taking are mostly filled with commuters between small towns. And swiss people. I don't think there is any reason to fear being mugged here.
Depends. Birmingham UK commuter trains during peak hours tend to be full, and full of fairly middle class people as the fares are much higher than the bus. Late at night, yes, a little more care is needed.
I have about an hour round trip on a train, and I can get a few interactive whiteboard screens or a handout written in that time (I'm a teacher).
I use a refurbished laptop so if any funny stuff starts, I just hand it over.
