It involves a measure of trust both ways
Mark, I too remember the gesticulations of drivers who would not stop but particularly one car driver who raised my hopes.
He stopped 50 yards down the road , waited until I was 5 yards from the door and then drove off laughing.... I enjoyed that.
Generally the sort of people who stopped were on their own and just wanted someone to chat to - as you say , the level of conversation usually showed why they were travelling alone...manys the time the cost of the ride was terminal boredom.
It interests me that those people who offer or have been offered lifts seem to be in or from more rural outlying areas. Are you urban dwellers more cynical about this matter of trust?
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A friend of mine picked up a hitch-hiker on the slip road from a motorway roundabout and got done by the old bill (3 points and fine) for stopping on the hard shoulder. The hiker was so embarassed, he gave him the money...
but it struck me as a very hard-nosed of the police and a bizarre use of their time - for example, when, 300 yds down the slip road, most cars would be breaking the 70mph speed limit.
Splodgeface
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I used to hitch-hike quite a lot when I was younger, and so did a lot of my friends.
Hitch-hiking in trucks was a cheap way of getting around Europe, but I only ever did it with a companion. Several of my friends who tried it alone got raped.
Maybe it's safer for men, but I would strongly advise any woman against hitch-hiking alone. If you have to do it, never ever get into a car with more than one man in it.
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I basically agree with Pologirl. Trust no-one.
That said, I do occasionally pick hitchers up - usually because something in me tells me that I "ought" to do it, and my brain is too slow to say "Don't. It's stupid". I live in a rural area, and usually only pick people up when I'm near home, or if I know them.
Worst experience? When I was courting, and with my wife to be, I picked up a gentleman of my aquaintance. His parents were very nice, genteel people, and he was quite a nice guy when he was sober. On this occasion, he wasn't. Since that day, my wife has never allowed me to pick up hitch-hikers when she is with me. (And rightly so)
I've never hitched myself, except once, about 10 years ago, in Zimbabwe. It seemed the cheapest and simplest way to get from Masvingo to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Quick it wasn't. There were very few vehicles on the road. Eventually a couple gave me a lift in the back of their van. Getting back into town wasn't any easier. It was a great relief when the same couple came along.
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I agree totally with Pologirl. Either way it is a risk way beyond what is sensible or rational.
The last occasion I tried to hitch anywhere was on a school trip in the Lakes when, after rather too much Old Peculiar, two of us decided to hitch to London. Wobbling slightly down the inside lane, neither of us could understand why nobody would stop to give us a lift. We were very relieved when a nice white car stopped - until we saw the red stripe down the side and a man in uniform in the driver's seat.....
Being young was great but now I'm older, wiser and still alive.
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I feel that the dangers are ovestated but it is interesting to see the different attitudes of the threads female and male contributors.
Ladies - I accept that the risk of assault is far greater for women and as I say would never advocate a woman hitch hiking alone.
Pedants note Duchess - the beer is Old Peculier with an 'e' not an 'a'.
Side Note - Whatever has happened to contributor Old Peculiar? I don't recall him contributing to the back room recently.
Anyway It seems to me that most of us have hitch hiked or offered lifts at some point in the past and a lot of kindnesses have been shown and friendships made with complete strangers.
So why and when did attitudes change?
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"So why and when did attitudes change? "
When the media in general decided that they would propogate the idea that the world is, in some way, worse than it has ever been. It's the "perverted fear of violence", as Chris Rea described it.
It's like our attitude to kids safety. Every year since the turn of the century, four or five children have been murdered every year by people not known to them. No upward trend, just a single major blip in the year of Dunblane. But read the papers and you'd think that if a child walks ten yards away from you they will be snatched.
On hitch-hiking specifically, I met several female hitch-hikers and none of them had ever had any kind of problem. The doom-mongers forget that 99.999% of men are utterly honourable. And, despite the media frenzy it would start, when was the last time you read about a hitch-hiker coming to grief?
V
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Pedants note Duchess - the beer is Old Peculier with an 'e' not an 'a'.
It was rather a long time ago - the effect obviously remains more vivid than the spelling.......
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Back in the late 80's I spend a week walking, climbing in the Outer Hebrides. No car or bike, so walked or hitched between areas. Never had to wait long for a lift, met some very interesting people. Local baker in his delivery van gave us a lift on several occasions in different places on different days. Even when we were deliberately not hitching (only 0.5miles to next turnoff) we would be offered a lift.
The Hebrides is one place where I would still hitch or pick up a hitcher. Buses are good but infrequent and hitching is part of the culture for both tourists and locals.
About the same time as Stargazer's trip we gave a lift back to base to the postman who used to walk daily in and out of Rhenigidale, then the UK's last roadless community. A thirteen mile round trip unless he walked out to the spinal A road and chanced a hitch.
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I am reminded, on this subject, of a great wheeze. I think it was Robert Graves, but if not, someone of similar attitude and period.
In older age he lived in Majorca and used to walk down to town from his rather remote house every afternoon to start drinking. As he arrived in the town square, he'd post a postcard to himself. Then, when he left the bar at 6am, he'd go round to the post office and cadge a lift in the knowledge that the post van would have to go to his house.
V
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My father lives in rural France, for exercise he takes some long walks on the single lane roads round where he lives. He says that some days nearly every car that passes offers him a lift, and struggles to decline politely in broken French...
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The only times I've hitched a lift was when I was a lorry driver and broke down. In those pre-tachograph days, if you held out your log-book drivers would stop for you. I did the same for others once or twice. The lift was usually to the nearest phone box or houses where one could ask to use a phone. Now, with mobiles, I guess people stay with their vehicles when they break down.
I also used to give lifts to regular hitch-hikers occasionally, but I can't remember when I last gave one a lift. I think the practice of has hitch-hiking has passed out of mainsteam, studenty life now.
Nowadays I would be wary of hitch-hikers, and they should be equally wary of motorists - not least what their driving is like!
Cheers, B55
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How times change: 40 years ago I hitched my way across Europe, Turkey, Iran, Aghanistan, Pakistan and India to Nepal. Not once did I meet with anything other than friendliness and kindness, especially the truckers in Iran and Afghanistan -- some of the kindest people I've ever met (how stupid are the half-wit know-nothing politicians of today who think they know these people, their cultures and their countries. They don't know zip). I was invited into homes, treated to meals, a bed for the night and always as an honored guest. Often by families whose resources might have been slender but with souls replete with pride and hospitality. In Sri Lanka I had to escape being married (twice!)
I have hitched across Vietnam during the war, round Laos and Cambodia, Thailand, and especially Japan. At no time did I have any difficulty other than communication, and that was usually resolved with courtesy and respect.
Nowadays political correctness, indoctrinated suspicion and the media have destroyed what was once the time-honored way for the impoverished student to see the world. It has been replaced by a bubble coc*** of lazy far-too-easy-jet travel, flashy know-it-all guide books by people who've been there once and Discovery Channel. You want to travel, really travel, then hitch.
Yes I would stop for hitch-hikers, and sometimes I still do.
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PoloGirl
I agree, hitching is bonkers. I have done it only once.
It was a charity hitch from Wolverhampton to Paris (via the M6!) organised by Wolves Poly. Honest!
Rebecca
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I have to agree with Growler that the Arab hospitality is excellent and that unwarranted suspicions have somewhat ruined the traditional student gap year of travel.
However earlier this year helicopter junior finished his university life and back packed off to India.A couple of years ago he spent his summer vacation travelling in China.
However he's a big lad and with was his 2 mates so not travelling alone.
When they were waiting for buses in India they were offered and took lifts with no problem except the overcrowding as more and more people were crammed in and the kamikaze attitude to driving in those parts of the world..
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I have to agree with Growler that the Arab hospitality is excellent and that unwarranted suspicions have somewhat ruined the traditional student gap year of travel.
It was SOP for Servicemen in uniform to hitch everywhere ? and rarely a problem getting a lift.
Sadly the 'Troubles' in Ireland put an end to that practice.
Whilst I would agree with the traditional Arab hospitality, with the current climate of hostility toward certain Western countries, I wouldn't advocate hitching in that area of our troubled world.
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