[Johnny Brown]

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.

How much? Someone told me it is the cheapest way to get a return ticket to the Alps, but didn't look into the cost.

Did a fair bit of hitching between 18 and 21, mostly up and down the M6 to work at Lyon, but also around The Peak. No dodgy experiences, a couple of wierdos/ grumps and a memorable hour and a half getting grilled by Bill Birch on bolting ethics (I misjudged my opening line, he looked like a tradster).

I'm pretty convinced there can be few easier hitches in the world than from Burbage Bridge back to Sheffield. Generally you stick your thumb out, immediately lower it again and then quiz the several offers as to which live closest to you. OTOH getting a hitch the other way out was near impossible, so we'd get the bus to Fox House. When I lived in Broomhall I'd often pull in at Hunter's bar bus stop if I saw climbers and offer them a lift to Stanage.

Last time I picked up a hitcher was Dave Thomas on the Ringinglow.

[andy_e]

My hitching experiences as a kid include getting picked up by Lucy Creamer from Burbage Bridge to Hunter's Bar, I remember being a pretty starstruck 15 year old!

As for interrail, yes it can be pretty cheap (although frustratingly not as cheap as flying). I have used interrail tickets to travel to international conferences and even with mandatory seat reservations on most high-speed trains (varying form £3 to £40, the latter being on the Eurostar), works out at around £300-£350 for four days of travel depending on the destination. The good thing about the interail ticket is it gives you a bit of flexibility if things go a bit wrong, whihc buying ticketed journeys does not. Plus train travel is a wonderful way to move across a landscape. </theroux>

[seankenny]

Did anyone here ever get picked up by the guy on the M62 who made hitchers climb in through the window and then spit on the dashboard? Harmless but a crank. I never encountered him but two of my friends did and had exactly the same experience, the driver used the same lines on them and everything.

I hitched all over the place in the 1990s and had the typical variety of lifts, the odd nutter but they were rare. Once got picked up by a guy with a prosthetic arm who asked me to hold the wheel as he lit up his ciggies, but nothing particularly dangerous.

Worth noting that rates of violent crime were higher back then than they are now.

[SA Chris]

We got picked up by a an old guy near Trieste in an aging luxury Mercedes who was excitedly explaining to us in Italian that the car we were in had bullet proof glass and steel plates in the doors for protection from bullets. We were convinced he was ex-Mafia and we were going to get shot up at at every junction. 

[Oldmanmatt]

My hitching experiences as a kid include getting picked up by Lucy Creamer from Burbage Bridge to Hunter's Bar, I remember being a pretty starstruck 15 year old!

As for interrail, yes it can be pretty cheap (although frustratingly not as cheap as flying). I have used interrail tickets to travel to international conferences and even with mandatory seat reservations on most high-speed trains (varying form £3 to £40, the latter being on the Eurostar), works out at around £300-£350 for four days of travel depending on the destination. The good thing about the interail ticket is it gives you a bit of flexibility if things go a bit wrong, whihc buying ticketed journeys does not. Plus train travel is a wonderful way to move across a landscape. </theroux>

I miss Interailing. My daughter discovered it’s still a thing and has plans for her first Uni summer break.
Is it still very restricted on what trains you can use? Myself and my then girlfriend, were kicked off a train out of Venice, on the causeway, beside the tracks; by an irate and incomprehensible guard, to walk back on to the mainland…

[cheque]

I’ve never hitched but I’ve given loads of people lifts, mainly just back to Sheffield from the Peak. If I’m on my own I pick up hitchhikers without a thought. It’s quite unusual to see them though.

When I read about the times when  hitchhiking was common or talk to people who used to hitch in that time  it’s always the fluidity of the meeting up part that amazes me- arranging to meet your mate at a specific place at the other end of the country with no way of knowing how close they are, whether you’ve arrived first  or anything. It would be so much easier now we all have mobiles.

Similarly I often find myself thinking how hard it must be to get away with crime in the modern era where there are digital paper trails for everything and (more related to hitch hikingy crime) we all have a traceable device in our pockets all the time. It really seems like hitchhiking would be much easier and safer nowadays.

[sirlockoff]

I hitchhiked few weeks  when I was young, the strategy was to use my attractive female friend as a bait, and when she got us a ride with the line of "me and my friend", I came out hiding from the bushes, had one guy drove off when he saw me! Though usually got a ride within minutes.

[gme]

My hitching experiences as a kid include getting picked up by Lucy Creamer from Burbage Bridge to Hunter's Bar, I remember being a pretty starstruck 15 year old!

As for interrail, yes it can be pretty cheap (although frustratingly not as cheap as flying). I have used interrail tickets to travel to international conferences and even with mandatory seat reservations on most high-speed trains (varying form £3 to £40, the latter being on the Eurostar), works out at around £300-£350 for four days of travel depending on the destination. The good thing about the interail ticket is it gives you a bit of flexibility if things go a bit wrong, whihc buying ticketed journeys does not. Plus train travel is a wonderful way to move across a landscape. </theroux>

Ours were about 300 each for 5 travelling days in a 2 week period and included UK and Eurostar. This was including a 1st class upgrade. You have to select the days you were travelling on but we didn't book trains just jumped on the one we fancy. All really smooth and hassle free other than Germany who's rail network reliability is worse than the UK.
Already planning to do it again.   

[gme]

I could rattle on with Hitching stories for ages, as i guess most from the 80s and 90s could. Part of climbing folklore back then. Started hitching to the lakes at 14/15 and to Buoux at 16 or 17.

All positive other than being picked up for sex by a middle aged fella in Avignon. He was initially a bit threatening but I was bigger than him though and i guess he decided it wasn't worth the risk so took me to where i wanted to go. Had a stand off as my bag was in the boot and i made him get out and get it before i would get out of the car.

[TobyD]

I used to hitch all the time, in / out of the peak, but abroad in New Zealand, the US and in Europe. One or two borderline terrifying experiences but nothing that was ever directly threatening or actually dangerous. Although I was in a lift with a fairly insane guy in southern California who picked up another hitcher, and proceeded to sell him several thousand dollars of drugs in a wal mart car park. I made some swift excuses at this point and got out pretty quickly!

[mrjonathanr]

I hitchhiked few weeks  when I was young, the strategy was to use my attractive female friend as a bait, and when she got us a ride with the line of "me and my friend", I came out hiding from the bushes, had one guy drove off when he saw me! Though usually got a ride within minutes.

I’ve hitchhiked a lot, similarly to gme. Had an amusing lift in a 2CV from a French farmer near Fontainebleau who, it soon became obvious, was completely plastered. We zigzagged between the verges of turnip fields beside the road at a leisurely 10mph. He insisted on me joining him, his wife and son in the farmhouse for a brandy before I walked the rest of the way to the gîte. Think you were in it, actually Gav? Circa 1992

I’ve had lifts with guys who’ve said they’d never pick up a single female for fear of being accused of misbehaving and having no witness to back them up. Contrasts with single girls who have quite cheerfully picked me up. I excpect being about 22 and carrying a rucksack with a visible rope helped.

[Will Hunt]

I once got a lift from a woman who pulled over because I was the spitting image of her son who she thought was skipping school to go climbing. She stopped, wound down the window and started giving us a bollocking, then went "oh, wait, you're not my son. You'd best get in then".

[andy_e]

I just remembered we studied this poem at GCSE and now maybe Simon Armitage is to blame for the drop in popularity of hitchhiking?

https://genius.com/Simon-armitage-hitcher-annotated

Hitcher

I'd been tired, under
the weather, but the ansaphone kept screaming:
One more sick-note, mister, and you're finished. Fired.
I thumbed a lift to where the car was parked.
A Vauxhall Astra. It was hired.

I picked him up in Leeds.
He was following the sun from west to east
with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,
he said, was blowin' in the wind,
or round the next bend.

I let him have it
on the top road out of Harrogate - once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face - and didn't even swerve.
I dropped it into third

and leant across
to let him out, and saw him in the mirror
bouncing off the kerb, then disappearing down the verge.
We were the same age, give or take a week.
He'd said he liked the breeze

to run its fingers
through his hair. It was twelve noon.
The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.
Stitch that, I remember thinking,
you can walk from there.

[stone]

As Sam said, the feasibility of doing that whilst driving is so much less than just to someone in the street or on a footpath or sat down in the park etc etc.

Like I've said, I've been mugged twice walking down the street (years ago). A couple of people at work though have been mugged whilst walking down the street in Sheffield in recent years.

My impression is that people who feel hitching is unseemly (perhaps because it doesn't fit into our world of commerce) make a big deal of the purported dangers.

[spidermonkey09]

My impression is that people who feel hitching is unseemly (perhaps because it doesn't fit into our world of commerce) make a big deal of the purported dangers.

No offence but I think that is nonsense. People think hitching is undignified consciously exaggerate the dangers in order to make people conform to a more decorous society? You're projecting your opinions about capitalism onto the discussion.

No one on this thread has yet considered the safety aspect in any meaningful way. Might be an idea...

GME has openly said that he nearly came to grief on one occasion but only didn't because he was bigger than the potential perpetrator. I am a small guy, I would back myself to put up some kind of resistance in a similar situation but realistically speaking most men are considerably stronger than me. Most women are faced with a serious strength and power imbalance in opposition to most men and it is hardly surprising that in the wake of incidents like the Sarah Everard one hitching is even less popular than it has been previously.

Nostalgically mourning its passing seems a bit naive given as far as I know everyone telling their old war stories on this thread is a man!

[SamT]

I think there is certainly an element of right leaning snootiness about it too.  I remember listening through gritted teeth as  aquaintances of old exclaiming things like 'get your own car' as they drove past a hitcher, giving them the thumbs up. 
Why should I give them a lift, pay their own way, get a job  etc etc etc.

I suspect thats increased and is increasing as we move, generation by generation, further and further away from the 60's 70's hippy era that was perhaps the heyday of hitching hiking, into our further further divided society.

As I said earlier, I'm pretty sure there are many more gen z kids who don't even know that hitching is even a thing.  They've had their heads buried in tablets/phones their entire lives as they've been driven around, so haven't even noticed the kid out the window with their thumb out.

[SamT]

No offence but I think that is nonsense. People think hitching is undignified consciously exaggerate the dangers in order to make people conform to a more decorous society? You're projecting your opinions about capitalism onto the discussion.

I agree with Stone that there is an element of this, and its not nonsense, as backed up by the fact that I've witnessed it first hand, and that was back then. .  #buswankers

No one on this thread has yet considered the safety aspect in any meaningful way. Might be an idea...

GME has openly said that he nearly came to grief on one occasion but only didn't because he was bigger than the potential perpetrator. I am a small guy, I would back myself to put up some kind of resistance in a similar situation but realistically speaking most men are considerably stronger than me. Most women are faced with a serious strength and power imbalance in opposition to most men and it is hardly surprising that in the wake of incidents like the Sarah Everard one hitching is even less popular than it has been previously.

WTF are you on about.  Single lone female walking alone at night in central london gets abducted = single males hitchhiking is eqally as dangerous.

Sad fact is that time immemorial, single lone females have been at high risk at night.  Which is why I'd never recommend they hitchhike alone.

Whilst hitching has not, despite what the media and hollywood woudl have you believe, resulted in abductions/attacks, as indicated by those on here who've hitched a lot, but never actually had any trouble.  I'm very small too!

GME said he felt threatened.  I've felt threatened by other blokes in dozens of situations,  Bars, clubs, toilets, quiet streets, bus stops, public transport, and only once or twice hitching,  and on those occasions, I was perhaps more aware/cautious/prepared when hitching, rather than being taken by surprise at a bus stop.

[spidermonkey09]

I'm saying that I can absolutely understand why a majority of the population don't hitchhike, which seems somewhat underdiscussed on this thread given that Stone posed the question of 'why isn't it as popular as it used to be?' The only anecdote of a women hitching on this thread is sirlockoff's friend being used as bait to get drivers to pull over, one of whom bailed as soon as they saw they werent picking up a lone female! (no judgement sirlockoff, i know thats a common tactic, I just think it speaks to a truth about hitching).

My point is that I think the assumption that hitching is almost always safe and concerns about it are overplayed is one that only men can make. Similar to how walking along late at night is almost always safe for men and we don't think about being followed, staying on lit streets etc etc. Basically I think bonjoy has it about right.

I'm not saying hitching couldn't be used a bit more and probably still be safe, I'm saying the discussion on this thread is a bit monocular because those posting about the topic thus far are all men. Fair enough if you think theres a wider cultural element, I don't personally see it but thats just me.

[SamT]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that hitchhiking should become more popular in the female half of the population.

Its just a sad fact, and I think lone female hitchikers are much more at risk.

Its just a given that this is unfortunatly a male biased discussion.

My view is that its just a really sad reflection on our society that the general feeling of the population is that hitchiking is dangerous, when the statistics really don't support that, and its just another litmus indicator of just how insecure the populous feels about 'strangers' and I feel its been driven futher by the media/sensastionalist new coverage that we're constantly subjected to.

I'm not going as far as saying 'hitching is perfectly 100% safe', but IMO, its way safer than waiting for a bus, alone at night in an urban environment, but somehow, everyone seems to think the opposite.

[spidermonkey09]

IMO, its way safer than waiting for a bus, alone at night in an urban environment, but somehow, everyone seems to think the opposite.

Obviously this is not really testable but I don't think this can be right. Well lit environment, either with houses or businesses nearby, frequently covered by CCTV, likelihood of passing people or traffic vs alone in car with unknown individual?

[T_B]

I doubt it’s got much to do with perception of danger.

Yoof of today want it on a plate*.

Hitching is way too risky/inconvenient. I mean you could get stranded somewhere with no WiFi connection!

When Sheffield Uni do their hitchhiking annual thing there are plenty of students doing it ‘for fun’.

*Slightly tongue in cheek, but when you’ve got Uber and Just Eat and all of these other conveniences, the idea of not knowing exactly when/how you’re going to get from A to B is way too big to get your head round for a lot of people I reckon.

[stone]

The only anecdote of a women hitching on this thread is sirlockoff's friend being used as bait to get drivers to pull over, one of whom bailed as soon as they saw they werent picking up a lone female! (no judgement sirlockoff, i know thats a common tactic, I just think it speaks to a truth about hitching).
I'm not saying hitching couldn't be used a bit more and probably still be safe, I'm saying the discussion on this thread is a bit monocular because those posting about the topic thus far are all men. Fair enough if you think theres a wider cultural element, I don't personally see it but thats just me.

I totally agree with you that lone women almost certainly would be in danger when hitching. That's awful and unjust -same as it is even more awful and unjust that lone women can't safely walk across a city at night.

I don't think that is all that closely relevant as to why men don't hitchhike now.

Another anecdote about lone women hitching: my aunt hitched alone from Bristol to India, through the middle east in the 1950s. I'm sure that wouldn't be recommended now.

No one on this thread has yet considered the safety aspect in any meaningful way. Might be an idea...
GME has openly said that he nearly came to grief on one occasion but only didn't because he was bigger than the potential perpetrator.

I'm unclear quite what that threat to GME amounted to. Was it just a proposition that was taken offence to (sorry GME if I'm misunderstanding/being stupid)?

[Johnny Brown]

People think hitching is undignified consciously exaggerate the dangers in order to make people conform to a more decorous society?

Consciously, no. Otherwise, absolutely. Have a read of the Daily Mail.

Didn't Thatcher famously state that "a man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure"? Imagine what she'd have thought of hitching in your fifties...

Yoof of today want it on a plate*.

Hitching is way too risky/inconvenient. I mean you could get stranded somewhere with no WiFi connection!

The irony of this is there's no better tool for making hitching safer and easier than a mobile phone. I used to trudge up to the  services to phone a lift for the last few miles.

[SamT]

Another anecdote about lone women hitching: my aunt hitched alone from Bristol to India, through the middle east in the 1950s. I'm sure that wouldn't be recommended now.

Why not now if then?

I think the risks are just the same then as they are now.  Arguably safer now, as someone said, re trackable mobile phones, gps, communications etc.

Its what I keep coming back to.. the perceived danger.  I just can't reconcile that its any more or less dangerous than its ever been, and that its just our societies percieved risk that's changed. Which is just sad. 

[spidermonkey09]

https://fullfact.org/news/margaret-thatcher-bus/

 I think its impact is likely to be insignificant compared to the perception/reality of risk and the fact that as TB alludes to its actually a fairly crap way of getting around if you have anything else to be getting on with!