I agree - I think it's odd advice. Particularly as night currently begins at about 4pm. How will I get home from work if I can't take public transport or walk home from the station?

Facetiousness aside, it smacks to me just a little of victim-blaming, or at least might give someone the ammunition to do so. If you're robbed, the person at fault ENTIRELY is the robber, not the person who took public transport or "walked the streets" (WTF?).

I'm a single female, who is regularly out and about on her own, and even when I'm meeting friends none of them live in FH so my journeys home and the walk from the station are always solo. So I'm never going to be able to follow that first advice, not without becoming a terrified hermit, and life's too short for that. No, I don't use my phone in public (not so much about crime reduction, more that I'm not keen on their use in public full stop, wretched things), and depending on the time of day I sometimes choose not wear my personal stereo (feels fine at 7pm, less so at 11pm) - but it's not my responsibility to avoid crime, it's criminals' responsibility not to do crime.