places to visit > something for the weekend - hookups and lifts

why did hitchhiking fizzle out?

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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.

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