Many of the questions that were asked during last month's Q&A were centered around reading the environment and how to react to indicators of danger. While I answered each question independently as they came, I think some of my older posts will answer them better, and also check Grant Rayner, he answered this and a few other related topics really well in his The Basics collection of articles.
Urban Discipline: "The one general rule for all these locations and situations is to be aware, so put away your phone, your earphones, and your book and pay attention to your surroundings. Move your head around, focus from near to far and with each person you see quickly acknowledge them with a nod, if they are looking your way, and make a mental picture of where each person is together with how they made you feel."
Consider The Environment: "The environment is a key element that a lot of people often fail to understand, thinking it’s out of their control. But understanding what’s going on around us is one of the most important things we can and must do."
Decision Making: "Decision making is one of those things that can be taught, but really can’t be taught. Yeah, what you just read. What I mean is that you need equal parts of experience and training. Training gives you a good baseline, while experience lets you sort rapidly through many possible courses of action and select the most viable."
Here are Grant's articles. And while you are at it, check his gear: Station XV.
Reading The Street: "Identifying threats to your safety and security is one of the more complex and intangible aspects of personal security in higher-risk environments. It’s made even more difficult for us as travellers, because we often don’t have a good understanding of the environment we’re stepping into."
Being situationally aware: "In this article I’ll break down the concept of situational awareness into simple actions that you can easily adopt when operating in challenging environments. You can practice and refine these techniques when travelling. Depending on where you live, they may also be useful at home."
Building good judgement: "One of the most effective approaches I’ve found to build effective judgement and decision-making in the field is to pare down the things I actually need to make decisions about. A simple way to achieve this is to develop a set of universal principles and ground rules. These are the things you just won’t do (or will always do) in a given situation."
The benefits of being boring: "Your profile is how you appear to an outsider. It’s comprised of how you look, what you do, and what you tell people about yourself. It’s the impression someone forms of you as they walk past you in the street, or as they sit across from you in the hotel bar."