The old part of south Fort Worth where I work and ride isn't a very good neighborhood. Plus, I ride a recumbent that gets a lot of attention and draws a lot of comments, but tsl's techniques still work.
I did get a question from a car once about how much a new bike like mine would cost. I thought twice about my answer after it occurred to me that his car wasn't worth that much. I'm thinking I'll change to tsl's standard $100 answer.