Here are a few general thoughts:
1. Ride in busy areas. Don't ride alone on quiet paths. That is a recipie for problems.
2. NEVER ride with headphones on. This is illegal in most places as it will cause you to be disconnected from your environment. This is bad for two reasons. First you may not hear traffic around you and therefore are at much greater risk from a traffic accident. Secondly you become a much easier target.
We had mother get attached, *****, and murdered here at a nearby path. I knew the woman as she had a son in my daughters's mommy and me program. She was running solo during the mid morning in a community that ranks in the top 3 safest in the entire country. Even so you are never without risk. The perpetrator thankfully made some mistakes and left behind DNA. They caught the perpetrator, and linked him to a series of ****/muders going back to the early 1970's. The only good think to come out of this is that an other (innocent) man had been in jail for for the last 15 or so years for some of the previous rapes / murders. The innocent man is now out of jail and the real mass-mudering ****** is in jail for life.
Happy riding,
André