I worked in a dodgy neighborhood in Houston for about 5 years. I was doing a blue collar job at the time and did not own an expensive car, so maybe that helped — i.e. I wasn’t an obvious target. In my case, what I found was that if you break down, some good Samaritan will give you a hand eventually. In my case, that good Samaritan was always Hispanic or African American, never white. For me, it was a useful object lesson in race relations, since I’m also white.