Any ex-hitchhikers here?

[welsh dragon]

Do trade plate hitchers still exist?

Yes. They do. I have seen a few down this way. The last one was last year.

 

[Globalti]

Gawd yes, I used to hitch everywhere. I had it down to a fine art; studying road maps and working out the best places to stand and the best cardboard sign to hold up. Towards the end of my hitch hiking career I got so bold that I would just wait outside motorway service cafes and accost reps as they emerged; if they got a chance to see me up close they usually agreed and I'd be on my way, breezing past the hitchers shivering at the slip road. I still hitch occasionally; my most recent was in Derbyshire where my feet were sore after a long walk so I stuck out a thumb and the first car, driven by a climber, stopped. Another time about 25 years ago I was walking the Welsh 3000s and to start I hitched from Llanberis up to Pen y Pass and got picked up by a young woman; I was wearing snug-fitting Ron Hills and she seemed to be finding my crotch magnetic and kept glancing down and swerving the car.

My best ever hitch was Newcastle to Glenbrittle in Skye in 12 hours. I used to hitch regularly from London out to Chelmsford to see my then GF. I got stuck a couple of times, once at a roundabout near Glastonbury the day after the festival had finished. There were crusties all over the place and eventually a farmer stopped, saying: "I can see you're not one of those so I'll drop you in a better place to get a lift". Another time on a windswept junction on the A1 I was frozen so did a pantomime of swinging my arms and immediately three old ladies in a car stopped saying: "We don't usually pick up hitch-hikers but you looked so cold...."

My brother once hitched from Scotland to Newcastle on a hot day with a shark steak that a fisherman had given him in his rucsac. By the time he arrived home it was honking so badly that we buried it and the towel in which he'd wrapped it in a hole in the garden.

I never had a scary experience but I met lots of interesting people and heard lots of tales. I got a chance to reciprocate all this karma when I got a car; late one cold night I was driving from the M6 back to home near Bury and saw a young couple by the Blackburn ring road (no M65 in those days). She was sitting on a rucsac covering her ears and looking frozen and in pain from the cold wind. I picked them up and turned up the heater to full then dropped them way out of my way near Hebden Bridge; they were so grateful.

 

[Pale Rider]

And your evidence for this assertion?

Spreadsheet from this link of recorded crime from 1898 to 2002.

'Other wounding' goes from five figures in the 1970s to six figures in the 2000s.

Nearly all the figures in the other categories show a significant increase.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/historical-crime-data

A googe of 'violent crime' shows lots of stories, all showing an increase, although many relate to comparisons with the last year or decade.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40665733

The figures are always massaged one way or another depending on who produces them, but simple observation of society in the 1970s compared to today tells me we live in more violent times.

None of which relates directly to hitchhiking, but it does explain why people are less inclined to attempt to get a lift from a stranger, or to give a lift to one.

 

[Pale Rider]

I think it says a lot that the figures you cherrypick quote (1898 to 2002) are over a decade out of date. They also don't show 'an exponential rise' as you suggested. And you seem to have ignored the data from 2002 - 2015 (also available on the page you link to) which demonstrated the downward trend.

But I'm sure all the experts who look at these things for a living, like those working at the ONS, the British Crime Survey and the various university research units, are wrong and you're right.

32,000 'other woundings' in 1970 compared to more than 200,000 in 2002 looks like an increase to me, but people can make up their own minds.

 

[captain nemo1701]

1980-1987, hitched around Europe as a student.

Had a copy of 'The Hitch Hikers Guide to Europe' with me by Ken Welsh. I got mentioned for some comments in the 85-86 edition which I think was the final one published. This is the book that inspired Douglas Adams to write his galaxy version.

I also had another book, 'Europe: a manual for hitch hikers' compiled by a certain Simon Calder who now crops up on the BBC on travel shows.

Had some fantastic rides, met great people including a Norwegian family who let me stay in their caravan on the front drive for two nights!. Only had one dodgy lift as I found that careful hitchers weeded out the careful drivers and vice versa. Happy memories.

 

[Globalti]

I think part of the problem nowadays is the amount and speed of traffic and the difficulty in stopping to pick up hitchhikers; in old days you could pull over anywhere and pick up but nowadays doing that would probably cause an accident as drivers just wouldn't expect it. I would happily pick up hitchhikers but hardly ever see any, even at motorway service slip roads.

I did once pick up a guy late at night at Watford Gap, he told me he was in the Army and was rushing to rejoin his unit then asked me to lend him a fiver. Unluckily for him my wallet was actually empty so he got nothing, genuine or not. If he was in the Army he'd have had a travel warrant so i think he was an early example of a scammer.

 

[Fnaar]

Early 80s I did it a lot, as a student. Also hitched round Ireland in 1986, which was a lot of fun!

 

[Cubist]

32,000 'other woundings' in 1970 compared to more than 200,000 in 2002 looks like an increase to me, but people can make up their own minds.

Blunkett introduced the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002. Its effect on recorded crime is well documented:

:"In the short term, however, the cost of introducing these changes has been to inflate artificially estimates of the increase in
the number of crimes recorded by the police. The main Crime bulletin (2002/03), published alongside this companion
volume, shows that without taking into account the impact of introducing the NCRS the numbers of crimes recorded by
police forces in England and Wales increased by seven per cent from 2001/02. This stands in stark contrast to the overall
trends in the British Crime Survey, which show a decrease of two per cent from 2001/02 to 2002/03. The difference this
year can largely be explained by the introduction of the NCRS and it has therefore been imperative to monitor the impact
of these changes to enable the Home Office to provide a better indication of the actual level of police recorded crime in
2002/03. When the effect of the NCRS is taken into account, police recorded crime decreased by three per cent overall
from 2001/02 to 2002/03."


Source
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...ggqMAA&usg=AFQjCNHCOx_Lx9KkXKVqcHZaZYQBWGhOVQ

What's more, is that in the fifteen, yes, that's figures 1 5 since your chosen date, the reclassification of violent crime has meant the inclusion of several previously minor crimes such as Sect 5 Public Order Act, which in itself makes comparison more complicated. I don't have details to hand unfortunately.

 

[Pale Rider]

Blunkett introduced the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002. Its effect on recorded crime is well documented:

:"In the short term, however, the cost of introducing these changes has been to inflate artificially estimates of the increase in
the number of crimes recorded by the police. The main Crime bulletin (2002/03), published alongside this companion
volume, shows that without taking into account the impact of introducing the NCRS the numbers of crimes recorded by
police forces in England and Wales increased by seven per cent from 2001/02. This stands in stark contrast to the overall
trends in the British Crime Survey, which show a decrease of two per cent from 2001/02 to 2002/03. The difference this
year can largely be explained by the introduction of the NCRS and it has therefore been imperative to monitor the impact
of these changes to enable the Home Office to provide a better indication of the actual level of police recorded crime in
2002/03. When the effect of the NCRS is taken into account, police recorded crime decreased by three per cent overall
from 2001/02 to 2002/03."


Source
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...ggqMAA&usg=AFQjCNHCOx_Lx9KkXKVqcHZaZYQBWGhOVQ

What's more, is that in the fifteen, yes, that's figures 1 5 since your chosen date, the reclassification of violent crime has meant the inclusion of several previously minor crimes such as Sect 5 Public Order Act, which in itself makes comparison more complicated. I don't have details to hand unfortunately.

All fine and dandy, except it relates to 2001/2 and the years following.

Violent crime in all its forms has increased hugely since the 1970s, even taking into account a very arguable claimed decline for some of the 2000s.

The figures in the historical table I posted earlier do not lie.

Or you could make your own assessment.

Do you honestly think society is less violent now than when you were growing up?

 

[Cubist]

All fine and dandy, except it relates to 2001/2 and the years following.

Violent crime in all its forms has increased hugely since the 1970s, even taking into account a very arguable claimed decline for some of the 2000s.

The figures in the historical table I posted earlier do not lie.

Or you could make your own assessment.

Do you honestly think society is less violent now than when you were growing up?

Your quoted figures relate to a period some fifteen years ago. There may well have been an increase in violent crime at that time, but it wasn't until 2002 or thereabouts that any crime, let alone violent crime was accurately recorded.

My own assessment? OK. It feels much safer now than it did when I was growing up in Birmingham/Coventry in the era of Punk/Skinhead/Mod/Rocker nonsense. We couldn't go into the nearby towns for fear of being beaten up.

When I joined the police in the late 80s we spent Friday and Saturday evenings in a battle against an almost constant and expected level of booze-fuelled violence, where we saw random glassings, kickings and stampings in the quaint little town of Halifax. It was nasty, and it was ubiquitous. Nowadays my (19 yr old) kids can safely and happily spend a night out in town, thanks to CCTV, Street Angels, SIA doorstaff and all the other measures in place to deter violence and monitor and supervise the night-time economy. Weekend evenings in the custody suites these days don't see anything like the number of arrests that they used to.

Soccer matches were marred by violence, again, on an expected and ubiquitous level. The 80s and 90s saw the big "Firms" garner and maintain a reputation for extreme violence. The work of football intelligence units, cooperation with clubs and magistrates and the use of banning orders has reduced that over the last decade or so to a level where the stadia themselves are, to a greater extent, family friendly places. Even the pitched battles away from the ground are dwindling in number compared to the days when Halifax Town v Burnley generated a level of violence that would make a premiership Derby clash look like a tea-party.

Yes, I genuinely believe the UK is a safer place than it was.

Fill your boots :
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...chapter1violentcrimeandsexualoffencesoverview

 

[Pale Rider]

Yes, I genuinely believe the UK is a safer place than it was.

Fair enough, maybe I spend too much time in courts.

I was thinking about knife crime today as the third bladed article case was called on.

Call me a cynic, but like drugs, for every case that's detected there are dozens that aren't.

I don't recall knives being so prevalent in the late 70s, and I'm sure you rarely saw a copper with a stab vest, now you rarely see a copper without one.

What's the first question on arrest?

Are you carrying anything you shouldn't?

We still use the phrase 'routine booze fuelled violence' or 'routine weekend violence' to describe the many defendants who appear for town and city centre punch-ups.

I can't say I've noticed a significant decline in that type of case, but maybe there aren't quite so many than in the days when Durham City was described as Dodge City.

 

[Cubist]

Fair enough, maybe I spend too much time in courts.

I was thinking about knife crime today as the third bladed article case was called on.

Call me a cynic, but like drugs, for every case that's detected there are dozens that aren't.

I don't recall knives being so prevalent in the late 70s, and I'm sure you rarely saw a copper with a stab vest, now you rarely see a copper without one.

What's the first question on arrest?

Are you carrying anything you shouldn't?

We still use the phrase 'routine booze fuelled violence' or 'routine weekend violence' to describe the many defendants who appear for town and city centre punch-ups.

I can't say I've noticed a significant decline in that type of case, but maybe there aren't quite so many than in the days when Durham City was described as Dodge City.

Stab vests were issued in West Yorks in 1993 IIRC. No responsible supervisor would let any of their team out of the door without one. It's a H&S issue. If protective equipment is available, it needs to be worn.

 

[Globalti]

I have to agree with @Cubist . My neighbour who is a PC complains that nights in Blackburn are mind-numbingly boring because business rates have killed the town centre stone dead. There are certainly very few pubs open and those that have survived are never crowded. Two big pubs have closed their doors within half a mile of me in the last year.

 

[Drago]

Stab vests were issued in West Yorks in 1993 IIRC. No responsible supervisor would let any of their team out of the door without one. It's a H&S issue. If protective equipment is available, it needs to be worn.

The early ones were horrendous. Risk a very small chance of being stabbed, or a very high chance of back injury. I was one of those who suffered the latter.

As supposed H&S equipment they were a sick joke.

 

[slowmotion]

[QUOTE 4925806, member: 259"]Our record was giving someone a lift from Lille in France to Watford Gap services (the one and only time I've ever been there - we were going on North). She was Italian and she said hitching was still very popular there.[/QUOTE]
My record was getting a lift from Ostend to Salzberg in one hop on a truck delivering Ford car parts. He did try and grope my groin though in the middle of the night. Ah well, macho Yorkie Bar types had not been invented in 1973.