Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
  • Where are all the hitchhikers?
  • loddrik
    Free Member

    Used to see ’em everywhere. Now there are none whatsoever. Is it illegal nowadays?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    the entire world is full of murderers, rapists and general nasty people, why would you get in a car with them.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    Around totnes.

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    fatsimonmk2
    Free Member

    I Am sure part of the decline in hitchers is that a lot of company insurance policy’s doesn’t cover passengers unless they are other employees and so a lot of companies ban giving lifts to anyone

    yunki
    Free Member

    I saw my first hitch hiker in ages yesterday..

    A small happy looking woman in her early 50s, I recognised her from around town and know her to quiet and shy, but very pleasant..
    She was hitching along the road that leads to the next town along the coast from here..

    we waved as we drove past her 🙂

    (not cos we were being ****, but because our car was full)

    It seemed odd, cos she’s got loads of mates and there’s a regular bus, but my other half reckons she’s the sort of woman who probably hitched around europe and india in her teens..
    We guessed that she was probably hitching for the fun of it cos it was such a nice day

    globalti
    Free Member

    Cheap bus travel and an irrational fear of strangers has killed the noble art of hitching. Why freeze by the roadside when you can jump in a bus from town centre to city centre for a tenner?

    I used to travel all over the UK for free and towards the end of my hitching career I gave up waiting on the slip road and used to wait outsid the service station and actually aske people for a lift as hey came out; I was usualy on my way within 5 minutes, most often with a rep in a decent car.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    I always pick up hitch hikes. They are mostly odd. In central europe it seems more common and you seem to get more normal people.

    BlobOnAStick
    Full Member

    I think there are other resources available these days as well: The Facebook group ‘pasty connection’ for instance.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Past connection? Is that like a Cornish version of grinder?

    wicki
    Free Member

    If it goes tits up there will be one hell of a fire sale could buy a nice retirement home on the beach or tourist businesses for a handful of cash….hmm makes ya think.

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Strangest internet thing of the day:

    I know exactly who you’re talking about 🙂

    I saw my first hitch hiker in ages yesterday..
    A small happy looking woman in her early 50s, I recognised her from around town and know her to quiet and shy, but very pleasant..
    She was hitching along the road that leads to the next town along the coast from here..
    we waved as we drove past her ?
    (not cos we were being ****, but because our car was full)
    It seemed odd, cos she’s got loads of mates and there’s a regular bus, but my other half reckons she’s the sort of woman who probably hitched around europe and india in her teens..
    We guessed that she was probably hitching for the fun of it cos it was such a nice day

    dannybgoode
    Full Member

    I hitched down the East coast of America once – big rigs all the way. Utterly bizarre experience and would recommend it to anyone.

    Can’t say I have ever picked up a hitchhiker but I would if I saw one (and Mrs Danny wasn’t with me – she would immediately assume they’d murder us all).

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    I picked up a bloke who’d ran out of petrol once, he had a can n’all.. Does this count?

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Thinking the very same thing last weekend.

    No one looking for a ride anymore!

    arcadian
    Free Member

    Saw on a couple of weeks ago, back of the car was full (only 1 passenger, but the back was filled with our bikes). Doubt I’d have given him a lift anyway as he looked like a right grumpy git! Probably the first hitchhiker I’d seen in years too, like 5 at least.

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    I picked up a hitchhiker yesterday actually, just outside bakewell and took him all the way to warslow, where he had a caravan and was going for the beer festival. He didn’t have many teeth and I didn’t get murdered. Our main convo topic: all the excellent cycling to be had in the area. He thanked me profusely and said if I ever passed this way I’d be welcome in his caravan for a beer.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I always pick them up if I can. See a few a year. Picked up three youngsters outside Cardiff on a charity thing, one of whom knew my Dad (80 miles away). Then there was a guy delivering cars, a nice but smelly hippy who was a bit of a pretentious nobber at the same time, and yesterday Luca from Italy on the way to see his friend in Dublin.

    nostoc
    Free Member

    I thought they had disappeared but last year I picked up more than I had in the last ten years

    Markie
    Free Member

    For the most part round here it’s the red license plate brigade, generally v friendly.

    br
    Free Member

    I use to hitch when in my late teens, especially when coming up to Scotland for the walking/climbing so have always stopped for hitchhikers (when on my own), but you barely see any now.

    I put it down to motorways and so many now go from one to another, so no legal place to stop – the A1 use to be the perfect road of hitching on, so many roundabouts/cafe’s etc, but not any more. Plus general corporate issues (banned for most company drivers/trucks etc).

    Many folk also like their own ‘space’, plus if they’ve never hitched they’ll not be keen on picking them up – probably the key reason.

    globalti
    Free Member

    I never picked up one of those because somebody told me they get paid for taking public transport back home so must be fiddling their expenses.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    As I understand it, they (the red license people) get a flat fee which is intended to include transport back home, but if they can get home cheaper then they make more profit.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Gave one a lift when i was doing a lot of driving for work a couple of years back. Dropped him off at his house in York as I pointed out it was 15 minutes on a 4 hour trip for me or drop him in the middle of nowhere on a motorway an hour from home. He seemed chuffed.

    Discussed drugs, music and the lack of decent food.

    Andy
    Full Member

    Hitched everywhere in my late teens, and when started driving in the 1980’s always used to pick up hitchers when I could.

    Picked up one lad, who went very quiet as we passed a police car on the M4. When I dropped him off at Hammersmith he explained he was quiet because he was carrying 300 acid tabs and a lump of hash and had hid them under the passenger seat in case we got stopped. Little shit!

    I rarely pick up hitchers now, although I did give an elderly, in their eighties, couple a lift from Sheildaig to Torridon a few years back. They were sailing around Scotland doing Munros from their boat 😀

    kcal
    Full Member

    used to hitch up and down to uni quite a lot – NE Scotland to Glasgow – also down to SW France, round Europe and so on. Likewise would often give lifts. Both of these have declined.

    Best set of lifts was leaving Arcachon on French Atlantic coast in morning, worked up to Calais by the evening, and then floated the petrol station on the Dover side, lift to Glasgow all the way up, arrived home about 24 hours after setting off…

    Cougar
    Full Member

    As I understand it, they (the red license people) get a flat fee which is intended to include transport back home, but if they can get home cheaper then they make more profit.

    “They” work for different companies who will have different policies, I expect it’s not that black and white.

    I briefly worked at a coachworks company in my strdent days, part of the job was delivering vans on trade plates. Never hitched back (we would have an extra driver with a car follow us to take us back) but our boss would always pick up hitchers with trade plates, said they had a legitimate reason for doing so. Figured he’d know.

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