I'm leaving tomorrow for a three week trip (Spain and Scotland). So obviously I'm more senstive to all the scarry posts - but it seems like every other post this week is about - terrorist attacks , delayed and canceled flights, pickpocketing, and the lousy exchange rate. If I weren't a seasoned traveler I'd probably be asking myself why I am doing this trip.

So in an attempt to delay cleaning my house and weeding my garden before I leave, I did some quick research.

Yes, there have been some terrorist attacks in the UK this week. BUT - according to the US CDC the statists are as follows - your chance of dying in a terrorist related plane accident is 1 in 55,000,000. Your chance of being killed by a lightening strike is 1 in 55,928, and your chance of being killed in a motor vehicle accident is one in 6000. So, you are 983 times more likely to die by being hit by lightening than in a terrorist attck, and something like 10,000 more likely to die in a car accident. OK, so terrorism won't stop my from going.

Couldn't find exact statistcs re your rates of being pickpocketed in Europe, but did find relative rates and the US, UK, France, Sweden, and Spain (etc.) are all within a few points of each other. And by the way, Spain was 2 points lower than either the US or France (which were tied). I did find several very good articles on how to protect yourself as much as possible - www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-14-2005-67081.asp. Pretty much what has already been covered on the related thread here.

Yes the exchange rate sucks (for US residents going to Europe). But even at 1.34, if I spend $2000 it will cost me $680 more than it would if the rate were 1:1. That's less than $2 a day for the next year. So I'll bring my coffee to work with me, or get it at the cheap coffe stand instead of Starbucks.

Just hope that if anyone is really worried about any of these kinds of issues, that a little perspective could help. I feel better anyway.

Okay, I've stopped.

Best wishes,

Rex

As a passenger about to transit London, my only real concern will be flight delays due to increased security and possibly more draconian luggage restrictions. Sure, it's definitely better to be safe than sorry and all that, but I'm not going to be thinking logically when I'm spending an hour or more waiting to go through security checkpoints.

&quot;<i>Okay, I've stopped.</i>&quot;

Me too.

MvK

Me three.

thereyet

What do you mean &quot;stop worrying&quot;? Some of us never started to worry.

&quot;Sure, it's definitely better to be safe than sorry and all that, but I'm not going to be thinking logically when I'm spending an hour or more waiting to go through security checkpoints.&quot;

Passengers arriving in Boston this morning were saying two hours, not &quot;an hour&quot;.

It never occurred to me to begin...

Me either, StCriq. I can't wait for my trip to the UK in September!

Be happy.

This is one drawback of the internet travel planning. In the olden days of guidebook directed trips, you would not have known to be worried, well maybe about pickpockets but not all the rest.

Glad you feel good about it. But the CDC stats don't say anything about the probability of encountering a terrorist event from what you said (they refer only to airplane crashes), and you don't say what time period their stats are based on to begin with. Also, those statistics aren't specific to certain behaviors and locations, which affect probability a lot, they are just a gross statistic based on all people and all locations, it appears.

I'm way more worried about the exchange rate.

I'm glad so many of you aren't worried. That's the way it should be. But the fact that when I logged on this morning there were over a dozen posts in the first fifty dealing with these issues (and they all had alot of replies) means some people are. I was just trying to give a little perspective on the issue.

Re the CDC stats - I just picked a few, there are more, and while the chance of a terrorist attack effecting you goes up a bit if you include on the ground as well as in the air, the general point is that it is still much much more dangerous to ride in a car in your hometown than that you'll be a victim of terrorist activity on vacation.

My God - another travelling pragmatist!
I quouted the same statistics on a recent thread to a number of paranoid, Republican, terrorists under the bed ranters who thought I was from another planet.

I agree Isabel - it is more dangerous driving to an airport than flying.

You've made your point, Isabel. Now go weed your garden before those weeds flower and go to seed and blow into your neighbors' yards.

P.S. Have a GREAT trip!

If you don't play golf in thunderstorms, your odds of being struck by lightning are vanishingly small.

If the stop signs in your neighborhood read &quot;ALTO,&quot; your odds of dying by gunshot wound are orders of magnitude greater than if they read &quot;STOP.&quot;

If you don't drive drunk, stoned, or angry, your chances of surviving a trip to the airport are the same as those of surviving the flight. Even if you fly Qantas or Singapore.

This principle applies to all mass statistics.

If the stop signs in your neighborhood read &quot;ALTO,&quot; your odds of dying by gunshot wound are orders of magnitude greater than if they read &quot;STOP.&quot;


Sure, unless you're talking about Washington, DC

That &quot;Alto&quot; means that in Mexico it is written in Spanish ? I didn't know
Here in Spain it is written &quot;Stop&quot;.

No, not in Mexico. In the Hispanic neighborhoods of southwest U.S. cities. We have them in the Phoenix barrio, and I believe the same pertains in East L.A.

Gang violence is rampant in these areas, and pride (or drug turf) killings are a daily occurrence.