Some people might think that a road, being closer to civilization and "home," is safer. After all, roads are familiar, we travel on them every day, and they seem "safe." Trails wind through woods, ascend high mountains, and enter dark valleys. They are far from home--both physically and psychologically--seem more lonely than roads, and thus seem more dangerous to people who are not used to them.
Experienced hikers know that this is often not the case. In fact, seasoned hikers know that the closer to a road you are, the more likely you are to have trouble with drunk or hassling strangers. The only time I had trouble with scary people on the Appalachian Trail was near roads. They were always people from nearby towns, never hikers. Seems like people who want to mug you, hassle you, or otherwise prey on walkers, are not inclined to walk 20 miles uphill in the rain, into the mountains, to find victims. They'd rather do that near the road, then make a fast getaway.
Long-distance hiking seems to weed people out--evil people are also generally lazy, so the farther you get from the easy life (roads and cars), the fewer of them there are. It seems like muggers, rapists, and thieves want to go home to a nice meal and a hot shower after a hard day of crime. They don't want to be camping out--it's too much work!
When I was on the AT, a murderer escaped from a Tennessee state prison and was known to be running around in the woods on the trail. The hikers were warned about him, but he didn't bother any of us. In fact, a week later he went down to the nearest road and turned himself in to the cops He told them he was sick of the woods, sick of the steep mountains and the cold rain and the lack of food--he wanted three square meals a day and a bed instead of the nasty, rainy, cold mountains.
