Is hitch-hiking still a thing?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Inspired by a chat with someone yesterday who hitch hiked years ago and never encountered any problems .
They said they stood by the side of the road holding a rolled newspaper out and had lifts, once in a very posh car which they still remember today.

I said can't imagine it today, it's not safe.
Shame that society has changed though. Someone would help you, in return for a little company and a chat.

Would anyone still do it today or know anyone that does? I never have and wouldn't.
Just curious to know, has people hitching a lift disappeared?

Only on ‘race around the world’, particularly the Canadian series where it was the only way to get around sometimes 😂 but also illegal from the side of the road or something if I remember correctly, they had to approach people at gas stations.

In real life I’ve never known anyone do it. Doesn’t seem very safe, it’s the exact behaviour we warn children against doing.

I was wondering this recently. I've never hitched but my boyfriend at uni used to do it all the time. This was back in the dark ages! People delivering cars used to do it too, you used to see them standing there holding the delivery number plate.

I dont think so, we hitched everywhere as teenagers, but always in pairs, l cant remember last time l saw somewhere standing by the road hitching. To be honest its probably safer now, we had no mobiles our parents had no clue where we were.

Not the point of this thread but why'd they hold out a rolled up newspaper?

Drivers don’t need company anymore, they have podcasts etc.

It's pretty rare here (Ireland) now, to the point where I really notice the very occasional one. I did it a lot in the eighties and early nineties, sometimes over quite long distances, but I think the last time was in 1997, that I remember. There was a particularly high-profile missing woman case -- she'd last been heard of at a phone box, telling a friend she was hitching home and a car had just stopped for her. She's certainly a murder victim, but her body has never been found, and nor has anyone been charged with her murder, despite credible suspicions. She was called Josephine Dollard, and she was only 21.

It was either that or your thumb wasn't it?

A friend of my DC hitchhiked in the UK recently with various amounts of success (a 20 yr old male). I wouldn’t recommend it from what he said. Not like it was back in the day.

Ehhh it wasnt any safer back then. Many young women were abducted/raped/killed when hitch hiking.

I guess it wasn't just about that though the company, maybe they just wanted to help, not sure?
If there's anyone that did help maybe they can say why?

what did he say.

My friend and I hitchhiked everywhere 40 years and used to get lifts from older people who lectured us on the dangers. Wouldn’t even consider it now even at my wrinkley old age

My mum's cousins went hitchhiking around Europe in the early 1960s (in a pair). Unthinkable now. It was dangerous then, but they didn't have 24 hour news coverage.

I’ve done it plenty of times - both hitching a ride and picking people up. It’s more common among outdoorsy people in remote areas where you might be coming off a mountain walk or climb and it’s a long way back to the nearest town. So Scottish highlands / north Wales etc. Also more common in the US, again especially in remote areas with walkers/climbers/mountain bikers.

I’ve never seen it in a “normal” lowland area with bus routes and trains etc.

I used to hitchhike a lot when younger (early nineties), and would occasionally pick up hitchhikers (wasn't often driving). Haven't seen anyone hitching for ages and it seems to have really dropped out of favour. Only exception is short rural lifts - and I have done this in the list few years when, for example, I have got a bike puncture 3 miles from home, or missed the connecting bus due to a delayed train.
Used to really enjoy hitching.

There are occasional hitchhikers around here (western France) but nowhere near as many as 20-30 years ago. There’s a few guys locally who hitchhike to and from work and I always feel guilty driving past them but I don’t actually know them personally even though I know who they are.

I gave two women a lift last summer, they’d managed to travel across the country in a couple of days apparently.

Only experience I had of it was about 20 years ago, when DH and I picked up a young lad once on the way from Dundee to Glasgow. I think he was going further but that was our route anyway. I don't think he spoke much English so we just played music and he sat quietly in the back. I don't drive myself, but if I did, there's no chance I would pick up a HH as a lone female driver.

reminds me of race across the world.

Going back years... My dad used hitch lifts when he got leave from national service, it was his way home. When I was child he would often stop for hh if he was on his own. I think he saw it more as passing on the goodwill he had received rather than for company. If we were all in the car he would do some sort of hand signal to indicate that sorry but the car was full, and he'd receive an acknowledgement from the hh.

I live semi rural and people still hitch round here. Especially as the public transport is terrible. Mainly men though. I see one most weeks.

I have picked random people up, but not hitch hikers, I've only ever seen one and that was male, late at night on a quiet road so wasn't stopping.

I've stopped and offered people lifts when I've seen someone walking in heavy rain, a pensioner with shopping bags, and once a woman who looked stressed stood on a grass verge - she had fallen asleep on the bus and missed her stop!

I vaguely remember seeing hitchhikers in the 90s but was told repeatedly as a teenager not to accept lifts from strangers so I’ve never done it and wouldn’t today. I only ever really see it in American movies or shows set in the past, and then often the driver turns out to be weird!

I was actually once offered a lift home by a food deliver driver who had my dinner. The road was closed and I had to walk 20 mins home so called the place to ask them to leave it at my door. He drove by twice and then stopped to ask “are you XX?”. I was so freaked out that he knew my name I declined the offer even though he was literally already driving to my house

I hitchhikers loads as a teen/young person in the 90s. A few dodgy incidents made it feel a bit worrying but mainly great and got me to festivals and around the UK.

I wouldn't do it now though as apart from dodgy people dont think anyone would stop!

We used to hitchhike home from school in France when I was 16. We used to get Nathalie to stand with her thumb out and Laurence and I would hide in the bushes and run out when a car stopped and bundle in. Nathalie was the prettiest and got more people to stop. We also used to pick up hitchhikers, usually older women.

Yes same here (North Wales). I rarely hitch as I always have my car but I think nothing of picking up walkers etc