Just seen a hitch hiker vanished species'??

[justasking111]

We've seen a hitch hiker first for many a year. What happened to them is n Wales an oddity, are they flourishing elsewhere?

In the last 10 years I have seen a few with motor trade plates but no others. I haven't seen any at all since Covid.

It has been absolutely donkeys years since I saw a normal hitchhiker that wasn't motor trade.

@EBearhug people claim the rail ticket and hitch to save money, I think. If you consider how expensive short notice train travel is, that could mean an extra £100 or more - worth the hassle, really.

I couldn't claim a rail ticket at work without a receipt/proof of purchase. (And currently I'd also need about 3 levels of management approval.) I suppose other places might not be so hot on paperwork and auditing, though.

Yeah, I'd imagine, especially for freelancers.

I think it must still be more common on the continent. I picked up a hitcher (young woman) about seven or eight years ago in my local city - she was French and on her way to an English language group, her bus hadn't come and it was chucking down with rain. Her English was about as good as my French (ie not very) but we just about managed to have a conversation!

I've only hitched once and that was in the 90s, with a (male) friend. Always admired those that did it but was too scared to :(

How funny, we were talking about this yesterday, and how you just never see hitch hikers anymore.
I can't remember the last time I saw a hitch hiker.

Oh yes! Hiking with trade plates! I remember my dad used to do lots of travelling in the early eighties and would always give lifts to men with trade plates

We used to hitch loads to all sorts of places, sometimes we'd set out and just see where we got a lift to. I sometimes see people with trade plates, but no one else. I guess you could argue that it's safer these days as you can be tracked by phone. We met some great people who offered us all sorts of hospitality, and a few weirdos!

Uber is just hitching really. I mean it's almost identical to how hitching was in Eastern Europe because you would negotiate the price of a ride with the driver.

I saw one a month ago. He was walking just ahead of me on the road.

I last hitched 3 years ago. Can't now as my young daughter's with me. Met some lovely people. Bizarrely, on a recent flight I realised the son of the guy I was sitting next to had picked me up a few years previously. Small world!

We picked one up on Skye two years ago. A lovely French man. We ended up going out for dinner with him and are still friends.

Funnily I saw someone thumbing for a lift a couple of days ago, but I'm in a more rural country at present.

This did occur to me recently. It's one of those things that quietly fizzled out leaving you wondering when it happened.

DH and I hitched a lift in a campervan in Yorkshire about 15 years ago after aborting an attempt at the three peaks. Our friends did get a few lifts over the years while fetching cars at the tail end of walks.
It's more likely to have persisted in very rual areas with a lack of taxis and public transport.

I always give hitchhikers lifts and am quite disappointed I don’t see more of them. Last time I saw some I gave some climbers a lift from Penrith down the m6 to Manchester.

I haven't seen hitchers for years. I used to do it all the time. Can't imagine doing it now though.

Haven't seen one since covid, but prior to that while it wasn't an everyday sight, they were not rare either where I am.

We have a festival just outside our village and you often see them during festival week. But it’s not been on for two years now because of Covid.

@TimeIhadaNameChange I love it when stuff like that happens! This is the beauty of hitching.

I still see them quite regularly hitching from university into our nearest city.
Always give them a lift.

Ah that's nice. I never see any now.

I saw one a few years ago- motor plate he was stood at major roundabout.

I think about 5 years I was driving down my road and an elderly lady thumbed me down and asked if I would give her a lift just to her family house down the street- I stopped cos I thought she needed something else but gave her a lift home- she was in her 70's

Just last week I saw an elderly guy either in his 60-70's thumbing a lift. I think he just wanted to go into town. Prpblem was he was stood right next to the bust stop, but he was definitely trying to flag down the motorists.

I've seen him before on the same road trying to thumb a lift a couple of times before.

My dad was once very quiet because he couldn't help a bloke in late middle-age, thumbing a lift (we were going to the supermarket about half a mile further down the road). Wasn't very nice weather. I was quite young and said something along the lines of not worrying too much because he was wearing a nice-ish mac and carrying a briefcase; I'd really only glimpsed him. Dad commented that neither was in good nick and he looked generally shabby. He thought he was a travelling salesman and probably not a very successful one 😢 My dad always worried about men like that. Travelling salesmen; knockers; odd-job men. He could be a total dick, my dad, but he didn't lack compassion or empathy.

Actually I stopped and picked up a woman who was probably late 70s and walking down a country lane as she'd got off at the nearest bus stop to her sister's house, which was some distance away off the main road. She wasn't hitching but she was grateful I'd stopped, I was just checking she was okay.

We drove from Devon to Scotland last month and saw one waiting at Stafford Services for a lift north. It was really noticeable as you just don't see hitchers any more.

I see them in South Wales sometimes.

Going a bit misty-eyed over great memories of hitching in the early-mid 90s now. Me and DH (well, he wasn't DH back then) went all over and we'd never have managed to stay together if he hadn't hitched between Yorkshire and Glasgow every few weeks. Met loads of interesting, generous people, gave me a faith in the general goodness of people which I've managed to cling onto through some tough times. It's a shame it's died a death.