Photo: The Canadian Press

Emergency crews cover the body of an attacker on the Champs Elysees in Paris. 

The jihadis' targets in Europe are depressingly repetitive: the Brussels metro, the Champs-Elysees in Paris (twice), tourist-filled bridges in London (twice) and a U.K. rock concert. And that's just the past few months.

The steady stream of attacks on centres of daily life have drawn pledges from Europeans not to let terrorists change how they live, but in ways large and small they already have.

There is a heightened awareness and quicker reactions, especially in the hardest-hit countries of France, Britain and Belgium, that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.

In Brussels on Tuesday, a 36-year-old Moroccan man shouting "Allahu akbar!" set off a bomb among subway commuters. The bomb didn't detonate in full and a soldier shot him dead.

It was another Muslim, Mohamed Charfih, who demanded that the subway's doors be closed before the attacker could enter.

"I heard people on the platform shouting for help," he told the news site DH. He looked out and knew what he saw. "I screamed to close the doors immediately. I asked to get out of there as fast as possible and that everyone get down on the floor."

Tensions are high enough in central Paris that on Thursday the quick-response police unit reacted to a witness' phone call about a man wearing a sidearm by tackling him on the street, only to learn that he was a ranking member of the anti-terrorism squad, according to French media.

In Britain, decades of IRA attacks prompted the installation of country-wide TV surveillance cameras — one of the most expansive systems in the world. Paris is quickly ramping up its own camera system, to the point where authorities were able this week to track the minute-by-minute path of the man who tried to attack a Champs-Elysee gendarme patrol until the moment he rammed their vehicle. The man died of burns and smoke inhalation — the only casualty of his act — but left behind a substantial arsenal.

Both Britain and France have installed barriers around airports, train stations and other public buildings in recent years. Since the Westminster bridge attack in March, however, talks are underway to install even more barriers on bridges and around crowded places such as London's Borough Market, where three attackers this month went on a stabbing rampage after crashing their vehicle on a busy street not far from London Bridge.

Few British commuters have changed their habits.

"I suppose I could try taking a boat to work, but before long I'm sure they would attack those too. So I'm just taking my chances," said Rohan Chansity, a 34-year-old finance worker in London.