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Which brings us to the reason for much of the criticism of Microsoft over the patent. It provides for the avoidance of 'unsafe neighbourhoods', which was dubbed the "avoid ghetto" feature by CBS.
Different places have different sensitivities, but it seems to be drawing a long bow to suggest that the only areas with high levels of street crime are those that could be described as ghettos. And although the patent mentions "violent crime" it's surely apparent that pedestrians would be concerned about avoiding areas prone to street crimes such as muggings and assaults rather than armed bank robberies or domestic violence. It's not that the latter are less important, they're just less significant to the passer-by.
Other people might be more concerned that a system implementing this patent could take them on a suboptimal route for commercial reasons such as driving foot traffic past a store during its quiet period.
