[stone]

Yesterday I saw someone hitching near Glossop and gave him a lift to Sheffield. I guess the last time before that was 15-ish years ago. In the early 1990s there used to be queues of hitchers at some spots. What with public transport having got worse and concern for the environment becoming more acute, it seems remarkable how hitching is now so rare. I'm clueless as to the reasons. I used to find it a great way to get around and meet friendly people.

[jakaitch]

More people have cars + the narrative that you shouldn't be picking up hitchhikers because of safety, probably

[Muenchener]

Far more people have their won vehicles these days.

Still happens a bit in mountain areas - last summer a couple of Aussie tourists kindly gave me a lift from Polldubh to Fort William railway station, saving me well over an hour of tedious road trudging.

(My best "assisting a historic ascent" tick was picking up Andy Pollitt and Basher at Pen y Pass, hitching to Tremadog for their ascent of Strawberries. My mate and I did our first E2 that day too - good day all round)

[stone]

Perhaps I have a skewed view of car ownership. My impression based on  work colleagues is that loads of people don't have cars. I googled and you are correct that there has been some drop in the proportion of households with no access to a car or van. But I think that needs to be set against the fact that nowadays many more adults live with parents etc. So there may well be a household car that they often don't have use of.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2021/national-travel-survey-2021-household-car-availability-and-trends-in-car-trips#household-car-access

[Bonjoy]

I used to hitch a lot and liked and hated it in equal measure. Best WAD tick was probably the lift back from Stoney with Tom Proctor.
I had a couple of really unpleasant rides where it felt like I was in the hands of outright psychopaths and had to play along with obnoxious chat to escape. Glad I don't have to rely on it these days
I think there are lift-share apps/sites which provide a better/safer option these days for the carless, if it's a planned journey.

[stone]

I suppose what I really liked was the complete lack of planning and "organic" nature of it. I'll always stop to pick up a hitcher but it seems full on to commit to scheduling around providing a lift at a set time. 

I once found out at 7pm that my mum had a heart attack when she was on holiday in Cornwall. I hitched from Leeds and got to Exeter hospital at 2am. Is there anyway that would be possible with a lift share app or public transport? My guess is that only a taxi or car hire could rival that (at great cost too).

I'm puzzled as to whether hitching really does pose more vulnerability than other human interactions. A psycho could mow down pedestrians or cyclists and bundle them into the back of a van, or pounce on a lone boulderer, rambler etc. Also any vulnerability was there just as much in say 1990 as today, so doesn't account for the ending of hitching does it?

[SamT]

BRING BACK HITCHING..!!!

Had so many great (and a few not so great) experiences hitching as youth, down to Buoux etc I'm sure we've all had the same experiences. 

I still hitch very occasionally, but its getting harder and harder.  I thnk there's probably a good couple of generations now, that probably aren't even aware that it exists, that its even 'a thing'.  (The ones that stare at you like you're some sort of alien space ship as they drive by).

Its usually easier in mountainous regions,  so last time I hitched was with my Son in Slovenia, having done a big hike, and purposely ended up at the top of the pass,  stuck our thumbs out and hitched back down to the car.. (far less down hill on my creaking knees ).  Nice couple from Czech republic gave us a lift after a couple of minutes waiting. 

I still harbour a fantasy of starting a 'bring back hitching' campaign and youtube vlog of my hitching adventures.  Reckon it could work really well, you know go viral, and fund my euro climbing travels.

The reason its died is as folks have said, more car (vanlife) ownership but also over-ridingly I think, is the 'stranger danger' aspect.   Just too many unfounded holywood/itv/channel4 psycho thriller box sets on netflix, that I think we as a nation are overly obsessed with that its started to become deeply rooted in peoples minds.  Just flick through iplayer/itvx/more4 and the choice is endless.. murder/abduction/rape/paedos/drugs/trafficking/prostitution .. choose your flavour of 'drama'. 

Anyone I speak to about hitching these days, who isn't of a certain age/climbing background are just instantly veermontly against the idea of stopping to pick someone up.. "oooo no, I'd never,, well you never know do you"..

I enjoyed watching race around world (especially the Canada one) where contestants invariably ended up hitching and where consistantly blown away by how 'nice' folks were. "Oooo they were soooo nice, we've swapped emails and will definitly stay in touch" etc etc.   (I'd have just hitched the whole way and had loads of budget spare to stay in nice hotels along the way  ).

[jwi]

In France and Spain, the blablacar app works amaziningly well. You have to chip in towards your proportion of the cost of gas through the app (calculated by the app using distance and car type). Uses social scoring, which I hate, but as the drivers are not making money, I hate it a bit less.

I've used it a bit over the last ten years and it has been mostly great.

I always pick up hitch hikers if I have room for them in the car. I am still paying back karma from my youth. I once picked up a cliche Balkan gangster/low-life and a special-forces soldier in uniform on leave on the same trip. They had both missed the bus south.

[SamT]

I had a couple of really unpleasant rides where it felt like I was in the hands of outright psychopaths and had to play along with obnoxious chat to escape. Glad I don't have to rely on it these days

I think you have to have time on your hands really... it can be a nightmare if you've 'got to be somewhere'. 

I didn't really have any nightmare drivers.. one slightly creepy guy from hathersage to sheffield and a couple of builders in a van who we eventually decided might have been over the alcohol limit. mega lift though, in the end - scratchwood services at midnight, to J1 of the M18 (they were going to Hull) .  Kipped in a car wash, first bus out of Bawtry to sheff and the first 272 to castleton and I was home before 9am.

[SA Chris]

in 1989 I hitched to Turkey and back over 3 months as we couldn't afford Interrail (do people still do that even?), had some amazing experiences and some utterly miserable ones. By the time we got to Paris on the way home we had had enough and got the Hoverspeed / Bus all the way to Victoria.

I tried to do the same on a climbing trip in 1996 in Spain and realised it was no longer a thing, and mostly used public transport.

As others have said, stranger danger at first and in the paranoid post 911 world suddenly everyone is a terrorist. And there are great apps and websites that have killed the need.

[stone]

I still hitch very occasionally, but its getting harder and harder.........
......Anyone I speak to about hitching these days, who isn't of a certain age/climbing background are just instantly veermontly against the idea of stopping to pick someone up.. "oooo no, I'd never,, well you never know do you"..
......I enjoyed watching race around world (especially the Canada one) where contestants invariably ended up hitching and where consistantly blown away by how 'nice' folks were. "Oooo they were soooo nice, we've swapped emails and will definitly stay in touch" etc etc.   (I'd have just hitched the whole way and had loads of budget spare to stay in nice hotels along the way  ).

When you say that it is getting harder and harder, did you experience very long waits or something?
The guy I gave a lift to yesterday said I gave him a lift within 10s of him putting a thumb out. It was similar with the previous lifts I gave a few years before.
My recollection was that even back in 1990s, most people didn't give lifts. But it only needs 1% of people to do so for it to be a quick, convenient mode of travel.

About people being surprised as to how nice fellow humans are- to me that is one of the best aspects of it. My recollections of how nice such a wide variety of people were when I got lifts, to this day cuts through any negative stereotypes I hear about certain types of people etc.

[Mostly_Inanimate_Beans]

Sheffield uni do a charity hitchhike every year, think it was to Ljubljana last year.

Incidentally I wasn't even trying to hitchhike and got offered a lift from just outside Hathersage to Stanage on Saturday, 2 pads and all. Made my day.

[Bonjoy]

I'm puzzled as to whether hitching really does pose more vulnerability than other human interactions. A psycho could mow down pedestrians or cyclists and bundle them into the back of a van, or pounce on a lone boulderer, rambler etc. Also any vulnerability was there just as much in say 1990 as today, so doesn't account for the ending of hitching does it?

I can't think of any other common interactions where you put yourself in a position where you can be abducted with minimal effort and you don't get to assess who that person is before committing. It's a very small risk, but a risk nonetheless. Of course anyone could be attacked at random at any time in day to day life, but these are by an order of magnitude smaller and more diffuse risks, not to mention unavoidable unless you want to be a hermit. Hitching to most people these days is strictly optional.
I don't think the risk is greater than in 1990 though. If forced to guess I suspect it might be lower. However, I do think you are less likely to get picked up quickly now than in 1990. I'd attribute the reduction in hitching to a combination of less people needing to do it and it becoming harder (or at least perceived to be harder) for those who do.

[James Malloch]

Sheffield uni do a charity hitchhike every year, think it was to Ljubljana last year.

I did the mini version when I was there, going to Glasgow.

Someone dropped us off on the Manchester ring road at a motorway junction. We got stuck for ages and my partner decided she had enough after a few hours in the cold. A taxi driver took pity and picked us up and dropped us off at a train station where we went back to Sheffield 

Didn’t do loads as I got a car quite early on, but it was always easy to hitch in the peak whenever i did do it.

[remus]

I don't do it often, but I've always had very positive experiences while hitching.

Probably the best was coming off Dinas Mot in the pouring rain and facing a long trudge down the pass back to the campsite, a guy in a van (I think it may have been Graham Desroy? I had no idea who he was at the time though, so could be well off the mark) bundled all three of us, soaking wet, in to the back of his camper and dropped us off at the door to our tent. What a hero!

I feel like I repayed the favour in spirit last year giving a group of 10 teenagers (+ bouldering pads and camping gear) a lift from North Lees to Sheffield train station, just as it started pissing it down with rain. Felt a bit sketch having a van full of youths rattling around in the back, but they were amazingly nice and even offered us free drinks if we ever happened by the random bar they worked in in London 

[spidermonkey09]

I've hitched a bit overseas and found it broadly ok, bar the odd slightly uncomfortable experience, but the obvious thing to say to all the nostalgia stories is that I bet women think about it completely differently and understandably so.

[SamT]

I'm puzzled as to whether hitching really does pose more vulnerability than other human interactions. A psycho could mow down pedestrians or cyclists and bundle them into the back of a van, or pounce on a lone boulderer, rambler etc. Also any vulnerability was there just as much in say 1990 as today, so doesn't account for the ending of hitching does it?

I can't think of any other common interactions where you put yourself in a position where you can be abducted with minimal effort and you don't get to assess who that person is before committing. It's a very small risk, but a risk nonetheless. Of course anyone could be attacked at random at any time in day to day life, but these are by an order of magnitude smaller and more diffuse risks, not to mention unavoidable unless you want to be a hermit.

But there's the rub.. people just don't get abducted.. like ever.. its just a media notion.
If, in the increadibly increadibly rare occasions they do, its most likely to be someone they know, pre-meditated etc etc.  "attacks, stabbings, muggings etc" are also statistically very rare, very likely to be peeps who know each other/drugs gangs related etc etc.

With hitching, you're a bit more in control than you imagine,  a: you've surprised the driver by suddenly appearing with your thumb out. They've had to make a split decision on whether or not to stop, a decision they're only likely to make if they're the type of person who gives lifts to hitchers i.e. an ex hitcher themselves.  b: they're busy driving, so hard have their hands on the wheel etc, and if they do happen to pull over into a secluded layby or something weird, you're going to have your wits about you anyhow, so will be prepared to run/defend yourself etc.

Its a sad fact, but it is different for single females, and I never hold an ounce of grudge for a single female that drives past and doesn't stop to give a lift.

[stone]

Its a sad fact, but it is different for single females, and I never hold an ounce of grudge for a single female that drives past and doesn't stop to give a lift.

I guess the golden rule of hitching is to never hold a grudge against anyone driving past. The remarkable thing is that some people do give lifts.

I remember a young woman who gave me a lift asked whether I liked nine-inch-nails, I hadn't heard of that band back then and didn't realise that she was talking about music. It seemed an unsettling question without that context. 

I'm sure you're correct about women being more vulnerable/at risk. That's the crapness of our society in general. Same thing with walking across a city at night or even jogging alone away from streets or whatever.

I have been mugged twice, never when hitching. Once was in LA, once was in Leeds. I was just walking down the street.

[Will Hunt]

Hitching is great for accruing funny stories and opportunistic journey shortening (if you're a student getting the train to Almscliff it's always worth sticking your thumb out as you walk up the road to the crag).

If you don't have a car you can still get away to the Lakes/North Wales for a weekend (providing it's not a disaster if you're not back by Monday morning).

If you want to be at your destination and climbing rather than standing on a slip road for hours on end then it's a disaster.

That's based on data I collected in the late 00's/early 10's so likely become worse now.

I think the most danger we were ever in was the Leeds to Sheffield leg of our attempted hitch to Spain (which ended at Bordeaux as we were missing out on climbing so flew the rest of the way). We were picked up by a lad who had just passed his test. He had two of his mates in the car and all three of them were thoroughly engrossed in The Simpsons Movie which was playing on a monitor mounted on the dashboard as we hurtled down the M1 well in excess of the speed limit.

Looking back, I'd now suspect our lift from Sheffield to London of child-trafficking, if it wasn't completely insane to pick up hitchhikers while trafficking a child... 

[edshakey]

I've given and taken a few lifts in the last couple years. Often it's just short ones, where every driver is going to pass the destination (lifts down Ogwen, or when I picked up a couple walking back from San Vito lo Capo in the dark, headed to a village only a mile or two south), which I think is still fairly common. I've not seen many people hitching on motorways, that definitely seems to be a thing of the past.

Memorable interactions:

- Picking up a Belgian couple at the bus stop by Caernarfon Morrison's, wanting to go in the direction of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll just to see the long name! Took a detour to drop them off there, and got to see their slightly underwhelmed reaction upon seeing it 

- Arriving at Font station, and being too cheap to get a taxi to la musardiere, so started walking across the town to hitch on the roundabout. After about 2 mins, a guy in a van pulled over and said (all in French) to get in - he'd heard us enquiring about taxis at the station, and offered to take us to the roundabout. When we got there, he just kept on driving and took us the whole way! And he wasn't even going that direction - he was working and his next job was in Fontainebleau, so had no need to be going out there. V kind man, I'm just glad my friend spoke French, otherwise it would have been a slightly more intimidating situation!

Fortunately no horror stories to date...

[Will Hunt]

This is my favourite hitching story. Tragically it isn't mine 

https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,5617.msg626663.html#msg626663

[Bonjoy]

I'm puzzled as to whether hitching really does pose more vulnerability than other human interactions. A psycho could mow down pedestrians or cyclists and bundle them into the back of a van, or pounce on a lone boulderer, rambler etc. Also any vulnerability was there just as much in say 1990 as today, so doesn't account for the ending of hitching does it?

I can't think of any other common interactions where you put yourself in a position where you can be abducted with minimal effort and you don't get to assess who that person is before committing. It's a very small risk, but a risk nonetheless. Of course anyone could be attacked at random at any time in day to day life, but these are by an order of magnitude smaller and more diffuse risks, not to mention unavoidable unless you want to be a hermit.

But there's the rub.. people just don't get abducted.. like ever.. its just a media notion.
If, in the increadibly increadibly rare occasions they do, its most likely to be someone they know, pre-meditated etc etc.  "attacks, stabbings, muggings etc" are also statistically very rare, very likely to be peeps who know each other/drugs gangs related etc etc.

With hitching, you're a bit more in control than you imagine,  a: you've surprised the driver by suddenly appearing with your thumb out. They've had to make a split decision on whether or not to stop, a decision they're only likely to make if they're the type of person who gives lifts to hitchers i.e. an ex hitcher themselves.  b: they're busy driving, so hard have their hands on the wheel etc, and if they do happen to pull over into a secluded layby or something weird, you're going to have your wits about you anyhow, so will be prepared to run/defend yourself etc.

Its a sad fact, but it is different for single females, and I never hold an ounce of grudge for a single female that drives past and doesn't stop to give a lift.

I'm not suggesting abductions of hitchers occur, just that they could be easily carried out in the circumstances. You are putting yourself in the hands of strangers and I understand why people don't want to do that if they have access to easier options.
I did a lot of hitch hiking over a period of about ten years, both short and long journeys, in the UK and Europe. I know that the vast majority of people who pick you up are sound.
I also have first hand experience of being picked up by a pair of what to me seemed like absolute racist psycho thugs in Bradford and being threatened by one of them (bare chested late teens skin head) with a can of mace. This wasn't the only bad lift I've had. They aren't common, but they can and do happen if you hitch enough miles. Some people pick you up to have fun scaring you. It's a rare occurrence, but the feeling of being trapped in a potentially dangerous situation is not great.

[Nails]

I used to hitch a lot in the eighties. Even when I owned a car I would hitch if it was just me travelling, as it was too expensive to drive on my own. Hitched a load around Europe. One occasion when we were in Chamonix the weather shat out and we decided to go to Buoux. A few of us hitched separately and met up in Buoux. The others had never sportclimbed before so I said I'd "Show them how it was done". Anyway I launched off up some route, managed to take a big fall (catching my legs in the rope and flipping) resulting in me putting a big gash in the side of my head. We went to the hospital in Apt and they stitched and patched me up. The dresssing that the hospital applied soon fell off. Fortunately one of the lads was an officer in the TA and had a sizeable firstaid kit. Shortly afterwards I hitched back to Chamonix. Only later did it occur to me how fortunate I was to get lifts when adorned with a very large blood stained camouflage bandage.

[gme]

in 1989 I hitched to Turkey and back over 3 months as we couldn't afford Interrail (do people still do that even?)

Still very much a thing. Went interailing last year for our 25th wedding anniversary. Was ace, easy and cheap.

Still pick Hitchers up when I see them but not that common now. Still stick out my thumb now on the odd occasions I need to get home from Alnwick and no bus due. Get picked up quickly.

[petejh]

This is my favourite hitching story. Tragically it isn't mine 

https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,5617.msg626663.html#msg626663

Ha, good story! And typical it happened in France where sticking your thumb out is like throwing 'sexual deviant' dice.