Without a doubt.I'll only trust a local to guide me across a street with traffic mid-block. A local understands how things work, a visitor, not so much. Besides, we drive on the correct side of the road, so I instinctively look in the wrong direction in SYD. Nothing wastes time more than a slight hesitation, and then you find yourselves on opposite banks of the flowing traffic river (1st hand experience).
Or lost in the crowds out shopping for the Lunar New Year. I stick out in a crowd, they don't.
Besides, she's got soft hands (again, 1st hand experience - pun intended).