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Original poster

Would you ever pick up a hitchiker?

64 replies

OpiesOldLady · 02/10/2019 14:00

Or would you hitch?

Just curious as I'm in the middle of a 250 mile joirney that i do several times a month, usually on my own and it gets a bit boring and monotonous on my own.

As a 17 year old i hitched from Hungary back to the UK, and it's a wonder i didn't end up dead in a ditch somewhere. I was very lucky indeed that most of the people that picked me up were friendly but it could have ended very badly. I certainly wouldn't want my child to do something like that.

However, i got to thinking that if I did see a hitchhiker i probably would offer them a lift. What about you?

OP posts:

Aquamarine1029 · 02/10/2019 14:02

Are you mad? Not a fucking chance.

ShrewUntamed · 02/10/2019 14:04

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

spiderlight · 02/10/2019 14:06

I did pick one up once, years ago - middle of the Brecon Beacons, pissing down with rain, and I had my 6 ft 7 biker boyfriend in the car with me, otherwise I wouldn't have. He was a perfectly nice chap and very grateful.

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MySonIsAlsoNamedBort · 02/10/2019 14:08

I picked a couple of hitchhikers up once. It was a few months after my father was murdered though so I think it was a weird symptom of grief that made me reckless. I think about the fact I did it now and it makes me sick with stress!
They were nice guys though luckily.
I'd never hitchhike or pick anyone else up though.

saywhatwhatnow · 02/10/2019 14:09

I have done. I would do, especially the people you sometimes see hitchhiking for charity, but never EVER with my children in the car!

EducatingArti · 02/10/2019 14:09

Yes, I have done both but only in specific circumstances. I'd judge each instance on its own merits. I hitchhiked with a friend after a walk on The Gower when we missed the bus back to Swansea and I also accepted a lift from a farmer when my bike got a puncture I couldn't fix and he offered to take me and my bike back to the youth hostel. I've offered a lift to two teenage boys who were hitchhiking having camped out all night under a cliff face in the rain in the Lake District. I judged them to be too sodden young to be any kind of real threat.

Really222 · 02/10/2019 14:09

No, and I was flashed at once when hitch hiking myself when I was 18. Luckily I got out of the car.

Bloodymary · 02/10/2019 14:16

I have done several times in the past; when I lived near a large university and they were obviously students.
More recently I gave a lift to guy walking along carrying an empty petrol can...…..well I thought he needs petrol and I can do the right thing here. He was absolutely fine and very grateful.
But when I told my DP that evening he almost blew a gasket!!!

raspberryk · 02/10/2019 14:19

I picked up a family with a baby walking along a main road with a petrol can once and took them to the petrol station and back. But not a hitch hiker no.
My brother travels and has hitch hiked all over Canada but he's a nutcase. He is built like a brick shit house and you wouldn't mess with him, its only really truckers that will pick him up.

starfishmummy · 02/10/2019 14:19

Sadly not if I was on my own.

TakemedowntoPotatoCity · 02/10/2019 14:20

I hitched while working on a farm in Australia. Everyone did it and we actually got a ride into Adelaide from it. Would I be happy picking someone up? No. Would I be happy with the thought of my daughter doing it? Hell no. But in hindsight and obviously from the POV of someone who was not raped/murdered, it was amazing!. We got to go in a big truck with some dodgy beer swilling bogan type and had a nap in his little sleeping area.
God we were stupid. It's a sad fact that life 's most awesome experiences to look back on are those which could easily have been the worst.

BarbaraofSeville · 02/10/2019 14:27

No, but I did sort of unintentionally hitchike once.

I was out walking in the hills, went the wrong way and descended into the wrong valley, so to get back to my car I would have had to walk about 8 miles back over the hill in darkness. So when I asked a couple to confirm where I actually was, when they found out I was in the wrong place, they offered to give me a lift back to my car, for which I was very grateful, but I spent the entire journey hoping that I hadn't found a modern day Fred and Rose West.

Redhound · 02/10/2019 14:34

I recently offered a lift to someone who was trying to get run over, wearing dark clothing on a busy A road at night. She declined but I would do it again- although cautiously as I have been advised that there is a nutter who hitch hikes locally. I did once give a lift which was a bad idea, the bloke forced me to stop. I was lucky there.

WispyTurnip · 02/10/2019 14:42

I gave a lift to a distraught female motorist whose car had broken down at night in very rural France last summer, but I haven’t hitchhiked myself since my 20s, when I did it semi-regularly. No dodgy experiences at all.

ilovetofu · 02/10/2019 14:46

TractorTartofThigh · 02/10/2019 14:51

I hitched a lot 20 years ago, through Central America and parts of South America, also in Australia, I have also hitched a lift back from the pub when the buses had stopped.
I always used to pick up hitch hikers if I saw them, but wouldn't now I have kids. Also never see them now!

ginghamstarfish · 02/10/2019 14:55

Never, although I also used to hitchhike with my friend when we were teenagers - long distance too. Makes me cringe now, how foolish we were, although thankfully nothing terrible happened. Coincidentally I passed a hitchhiker yesterday, very rare in these parts - a middle aged man in a cardigan. It's a busy road so I expect someone would stop for him, but not me as a lone female.

Happyspud · 02/10/2019 14:57

Not these days. It’s so rare to see one these days so for people to do it I’d expect a decent %of hitchhikers to at least be weird.

Butteflyone1 · 02/10/2019 14:57

No I wouldn't. Sadly I'd like to 'help' but the risks are too big.

CTRL · 02/10/2019 15:00

Never seen a hitch hiker where I live however I don’t think I would concider doing it nor picking one up.

I guess it depends though as honestly if I saw a vulnerable person who needed a lift, I might offer.

Topseyt · 02/10/2019 15:01

I have never picked up anyone I do not know well.

I have never hitchhiked and would never pick up hitchhikers. I am sure most are perfectly lovely people, but it just isn't a risk I am prepared to take even if it is probably very small.

WhatHaveIFound · 02/10/2019 15:04

I wouldn't if i was on my own but DH does and we have if we're together and don't have the kids in the car.

Could you maybe join Liftshare?

BogglesGoggles · 02/10/2019 15:05

I would consider picking up a single woman if it was unlikely that anyone else (who wasn’t ill intentioned) would and there was no where she could walk to but then again I never drive anywhere that remote. Definitely wouldn’t even think about picking up a man of a group of people.

dottiedodah · 02/10/2019 15:09

I would most certainly not pick up a hitchhiker ,and definitely not hitch myself! Life is different today to the 60s and I just think you cant be too careful(At the risk of sounding like my Mum!)

HoldMyLobster · 02/10/2019 15:30

Yes I do - but I Iive near the Appalachian Trail and most of them are going to /from the AT. They have huge backpacks and amazing stories.

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