To walk where there are no sidewalks

Jane Jacobs writes that streets with busy sidewalks are the safest for people to walk on because there are street watchers. These street watchers are guardians of those who walk infront of their homes and businesses. In a world full of strangers, you are able to be safe.
What about where there are no sidewalks? As you walk on a path through a woods or along a dirt road, who is there to watch you and make sure nothing happens to you? Space is the issue now. Both space and how you interact with this space.
This space without sidewalks is slowly becoming populated. More and more people are coming into rural areas. Mostly they are getting away from the bigger cities such as New York City or Philadelphia. It is alot like a chain reaction, or like a filter. As an example, people who move out of NYC to say the Poconos because the real estate is cheaper and it is not the far to drive, people from the Poconos are then moving to say Wilkes-Barre or other cities, people from Wilkes-Barre are then moving to the "country". What are the effects of this increase in population in rural areas? Farms are closing down to sell their land because they can make more money in real estate then with their dairy profits. Rural America is changing.
The environment across the world is being affected due to an increase in population growth and thus increase in pollution. Humans need to know how to deal with this space because that's all we have. The rural communities need to be looked at and the environment needs to be too.