Do people hitch hike anymore?

[Jimbo]

I first noticed hitchers at a very young age and asked my mother who those folks were with their thumbs stuck out. I never saw the old kind of hitchers with the thumb over shoulder action like in the cartoons, only the cooler, lazier, James Dean types with just a thumb jerked out from a lowered arm. That was my style. But in Israel I would stick my arm and index finger a little bit out and down at the ground. I hitched long distance first from my home about 80 miles northwest of NYC to Madison, Wisconsin to see a girl but when I got there she had a new boyfriend. But I had a good time just the same living for a week in a hippy house of Fidel Castro loving radicals. In Israel I and a girlfriend got offered a seat on a passengerless plane (saving seven hours of car riding to Tel Aviv) while hitching on the road running outside of the Elat airport. I hitched from my upstate NY home to Montreal. I had $13 in my pocket and returned home two weeks later with some money still left over, the folks were so kind to me. Then I hitched once from Miami to Los Angeles. In recent times I and a friend hitched from Tokyo to Hokkaido, a 12 hour ride. In very recent times I hitched a couple of times from the mountaintop down to the train station having missed the sparsely running countryside bus near my school. Gee, it seems like I've done a bit. Have you? Do you pick up hitchers?

[Insouciant Western People]

I had friends who hitched around the UK and Europe when they were in their late teens and early twenties, but I was way too nervous/reserved to ever try it.

I couldn't do it now either.

[inthenextlife]

Anecdotally, I'd say we are far too insular, selfish and perhaps afraid of picking up hitchhikers anymore. I saw a guy thumbing a lift on the A1 in Yorkshire not so long ago but they're a rare sight.

[Ray K.]

I imagine it's pretty much a dead practice in the States (could be wrong). I have a cousin about ten years older than myself who would do it all the time as a teen (I'm 43 to put it into perspective). By the time I was a teen I think it was out of fashion - I did do it on a couple occasions when strapped for cash and in need of a ride home from someplace. I'm not sure I'd pick someone else up these days or venture out using it as a means of transportation.

[Minnie the Minx]

I used to hitch everywhere from the age of about 16 to 20 - it was the only way I could afford to go long distances to gigs etc. If we wanted to go to London we would hitch from Leeds, just getting to the motorway was a journey in itself. I would find that people were overwhelmingly kind and helpful, buying us breakfast on the way and so forth - we once got a lift from Yorkshire to the Edinburgh festival in a truck and he dropped us off right outside the theatre that we were working in.

There were specific combinations to getting a quick lift - woman on their own, lift within five minutes. Two girls, about the same time. Girl and boy, would take longer. Often we would stand thumbing a lift on our own while the other person hid, and then they would spring out if a car slowed down. We found differing hair colours helped too. Green and blue hair was often off putting. Bleached blonde hair and pillarbox red hair (which mine was) were the most likely to attract lifts.

The longest I ever had to wait was coming back from London after a weekend away once, six hours on the motorway in the rain. Shortest time, about three minutes. It never occurred to me at the time that it was dangerous or risky, we just knew there were gigs that needed to be seen. When I think about it now, it does make me shudder a little, especially for the times I went off hitching on my own without telling anyone where I was going.

Ironically enough I now live in a place where I think I would feel comfortable hitching anywhere.

I've just remembered a 'hilarous' thing that would happen, the drivers would slow about 20 metres ahead of you to a stop, you would pack up your bags in your hand and run eagerly forward and then they would speed off just before you got to the car flicking the 'v' signs at you. Once someone was about to do this to us but they couldn't get away for all the traffic behind them, so we got in and grinned sweetly. Revenge!

[Moleskin]

I've picked up hitchers now and again. Not so much in recent years as (1) my journey to/from work is so short that the hitcher wouldn't get very far before I had to turn him/her out and (2) you don't see them as much any more (round here).

[lord_of_light88]

Too fucking dangerous, there's a lot of nutcases out there disguised as people.
I've never picked up anyone and never will.

[dang65]

We went on holiday to the Scottish Highlands a few years ago and there were plenty of backpackers hitch-hiking there, and we gave a couple of lifts, but it's incredibly rare now. Last time I hitched was during a London tube strike in the 90s. There were massive queues for buses at Victoria, so I scribbled a sign saying 'Wandsworth' and took a deep breath and put my thumb out, and got a lift almost instantly, in a very posh car as well.

I got a lift with two geezers in a white van once. They shot away at top speed, only to immediately clip a traffic island and blow a tyre out. I sort of politely hung around for a bit while they called the AA or whatever, then edged away and put my thumb out again.

One old fellow gave me a lift down the motorway driving so slowly that I had the constant urge to get out and stroll along beside him. Then he missed our exit and there was this excruciating, eternal diversion while he crawled along to the next exit to turn round.

I don't know why hitching suddenly died away. I suppose most people just have their own transport now.

[Jimbo]

We had a hard time getting rides when my buddy John and I hitched north through Japan from Tokyo to Japan. One ride left us at an expressway rest stop and after failing to get a ride with our "To Sapporo" sign we devised a scheme where we approached a driver about to depart from the rest stop with an opened map in our hands. My Japanese was next to nil back then so I'd put on a quizzical face, point to the map and ask, "Where are we?" And he or she would point to the map and show us where HERE was. Then I'd ask, "And where are you going?" They'd point to their destination and if it was north toward Sapporo I'd ask "Can we go with you?" And it worked! One ride was with a young couple on their honeymoon. John and I fucked up these poor kids' honeymoon!

[sloopjohnc]

I used to hitch hike pretty frequently in high school. Never really long distances, but around my side of the Bay Area. I never had to wait too long for a ride.

[Hugh]

I had 3 great hitch hiking holidays during the summers of 1978,79 and 80 when I was 15-17. I wouldn't have let my kids do it at that age though.

[bobzilla77]

Some people do, I see them by the freeway once in a while.

I never stop to pick them up though.

I hitched once in a while when I was about 15 to 18 and karmically I probably owe rides to a few people.

I'm not sure if the times are more dangerous or less dangerous but I have had 30 more years to be exposed to movies like The Hitcher. That's enough.

[Thesiger]

I hitched a great deal when I was a student. All over the UK and down to France too. So I'll always readily pick up a hitcher if they're looking for a ride. Very seldon do I ever come across any these days. More's the pity. I feel it's a practice that does a lot more for civil society than any amount of fine words about solidarity and brotherhood.

[Guy E]

I hitched some when I was in college - back and forth to home, which was about 200 miles. It was pretty common in the early-70's and I used to pick people up when I was driving. I hadn't seen a hitchhiker in decades, but saw one on our way up to ATP2008 in Monticello. I was in the left lane and couldn't pull over. The guy was dressed like a hippy gypsy and I knew he was going to the festival... I saw him there as I was checking-in so he must have gotten a ride shortly after we passed him.

My daughter has been hitch-hiking with a friend in Turkey this year. They've been getting to their destinations without a problem.

[souphound]

I never have once. You rarely see them around here nowadays. Of course, I'm rarely in car any more, so......

[Seymore Porn]

When I was a kid I hitched all the time. Me and my mate Arthur would head to Springburn Road and stick our thumbs out. We would get to Bishopbriggs, Torrance, Lennoxtown, Kirkintilloch - even Kilsyth one night. We always made it home the same night too. As I got older, I often hitched to London, or even on to France.
When I was 22 I packed in my job and hitched from Glasgow to Athens, and spent several glorious months living on a beach on Kos. I kept myself on a pound a day and earned that by busking and doing odd jobs. I'd almost certainly have stayed there had my sister not been getting married.
I left the following year to do the same again and had really rotten luck with lifts, lost a packet of money and came home and met my ex wife (lucky white heather?).
Even in my forties, I was working as a photographer. I couldn't take holidays then, so I used to drive the wife and kids to their holiday destination and hitch back home leaving them the car, then hitch to get them a week or a fortnight later. I remember one memorable occasion where I hitched to Keswick, got the family and drove home, got the car emptied while the wife made me a sandwich, got the car loaded up and went to a gig and got home at 2,30 am. Get tired just thinking about that now.

[The Prof]

I couldn't take holidays then, so I used to drive the wife and kids to their holiday destination and hitch back home leaving them the car, then hitch to get them a week or a fortnight later.

Why didn't you just drive home?

[Jimbo]

Thanks to hitching, in addition to homo sex, the rapes and murder I committed, I found a thrifty and often speedy way to get around.

[Matty Red Sox]

I've hitched the entire length of Japan (other than Hokkaido - had my own car there)...often on my own, or with a Korean-American friend and a Japanese National who had grown up in Germany... and with an old girlfriend (who was 6' tall...she surprised the drivers as much as my Japanese did). I last hitchhiked there last summer when I was volunteering up in the tsunami zone. I first did it fresh out of college back in the 80's. Best car ever was a Rolls Royce in Nagasaki that took me to Kagoshima in style. Often I would be fed, and even given accommodation for the night. Best places to catch rides are the islands of Shikoku and Kyushu... with Shikoku being the clear winner, never waited more than half an hour.

Jimbo, I did something similar to the map trick, but it backfired once getting me stranded at Fukuoka Airport. Airports are really bad places to hitchhike from in general.

I've hitched much less in the US, once in a while in high school with friends in our small town, or at my college to cross the campus during blizzards (Oswego NY is daunting in the winter)... I also hitched a few times in Hawaii, mainly if I had been at a bar and I didn't feel right about getting behind the wheel, wound up at some great parties that way.

[Six String]

I used to hitch hike in highschool with friends mostly. My last two years of school was at an air force base housing area between two towns. We used to hitch to one of the close towns from time to time. Once there were four of us walking along the road and we decided to have some fun so three of his hid in a bush and the one lone person put his thumb out. Soon a sportscar (two seater of course) pulled over and the three of us come running out from the bush. Should have seen the driver's face. We all had a good laugh. We might have been stoned at the time.

Another time I hitched alone in San Diego from a friend's house to go out to Pacific Beach to see a JImi Hendrix film. It was the night the SLA house in L.A. got surrounded and attacked. I took the bus to the movie but for some reason, might have been the buses stopped running after the movie let out, so I hitch hiked back home. A guy picked me up in a truck with a camper shell on the back. He had wild hair and a long beard, bluejean jacket, looked real rugged.
So after a short bit he asks me if I know where any gay bars are nearby. I told him I wasn't really into that kind of thing. I forget what he said or if he said anything in response but shortly after that he told me that he was turning off soon and that he'd need to let me out. I was so relieved but it's funny that I don't think I was as scared as I would be today or even fifteen years ago. I decided to walk the rest of the way home which wasn't too bad. I walked through Balboa Park and at some point I started hearing bagpipes. I started following the sound and I came upon a gymnasium type room with probably thirty or so people playing bagpipes in groups of two, three or four. I stayed there for a while but left and got home safe and sound. It was one of the weirdest birthdays I ever had.