Hitchhiking

[Brains]

I have been driving on a regular basis between London and Cornwall since the late 1970'sas parents as sisters etc all still live there.
I always used to pick up hitchers in west London at the Chiswick roundabout.
I think they started drying up in about 1992/93.
By about 1995 they had all gone
I don't think I've picked up a hitcher in at least 15 years
It is now a lost art in the UK, it is no longer possible to do in this country.

 

[Ajay]

The hitcher used to be a common sight on our major arteries, but where are they now?

Some of them are under my patio.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I have been driving on a regular basis between London and Cornwall since the late 1970'sas parents as sisters etc all still live there.
I always used to pick up hitchers in west London at the Chiswick roundabout.
I think they started drying up in about 1992/93.
By about 1995 they had all gone
I don't think I've picked up a hitcher in at least 15 years
It is now a lost art in the UK, it is no longer possible to do in this country.

Still get them here in Wales, I stop if the vibes feel ok.

 

[Ajay]

I hitched from Porto to Paris when I was 17, Jeez those were the days! Shared the cab of a German trucker with a Dutch dude who was on his way back to Amsterdam to see a Prince concert. I did the last leg of the journey from Tours to Paris with an Iranian student in a souped up Renault 5, how I got home in one piece I'll never know.

I did go through a phase of picking up a few hitchers when on long motorway slogs, very educational experiences, giving me a glimpse of lifestyles I wouldn't normally encounter. I wouldn't do it now though, I hide behind the excuse of driving a company car not to stop.

 

[MontyVeda]

...
I think they started drying up in about 1992/93.
By about 1995 they had all gone
...

yup, that's when i see the decline too.

All the motorway signs, of which one side was legal to stand, the other side not... seemed to shift from the top-end of the slip roads to the bottom end, and in some cases, a far few yards before the turn off, leaving the obvious place to stand and stick your thumb out firmly on the wrong side of the sign... I think they moved all the signs for a reason.

 

[BrumJim]

Last time I was in the highlands of Scotland they seemed 10 a penny. That was only a handful of years ago. Don't know what it is like now.

 

[dellzeqq]

I went across Canada three times, down the West Coast of the US, across to Texas and down to Chihuahua. And then, a little while later, I got a lift from Escuintla in Guatemala to Mexico City and went on to Boston in four or five days for the Bicentennial, getting a lift in Tennessee from some doped up boys with a trunk full of guns. And then there was Dawson to Vancouver, where a woman in a van raced a car from me (I had more hair then) and demanded sex for the ride (it was the 70s, you had to be there....). Oh - and from Miami to Los Angeles in eleven days, which included getting put in jail, being assaulted by gay men twice, (I may have been hitching at some recognised pick-up point) painting a house, sleeping with one of my rides, getting picked up by the cops in a thunderstorm outside Dallas (cop 'I was in Liverpool during the war, with Mrs Thompson - d'ya know Mrs Thompson' DZ 'Mrs Thompson guv'nor, why she's like a muvva to me!!'), fixing a fuel line in a truck carrying fast-rotting oranges despite knowing nothing about engines, and driving through Palm Springs at 85mph despite never having had so much as a lesson because the driver who had jumped bail in Lake Charles Louisiana had, after 1500+ miles, run out of speed. I did do Boston to San Lucas Toliman in Guatemala in six days in the back of a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, but since I had a half share in the pick-up truck that's not really hitchhiking.

I did hitch in the UK - getting to Leeds from Buckinghamshire in decent time, but once I'd cracked the same sort of distance on a bike there didn't seem the need. My last attempt was in 1993 on the A38 out of Plymouth. A complete failure. I'd have been there still if I hadn't walked to a bus, gone to the railway station and got on the sleeper to Paddington.

And if Patrick Stevens can beat that I'll take him off my ignore list.........

 

[Doseone]

Done loads in the past but not in the UK.

Got picked up by a very rascist Afrikaner in the Orange Free State who turned out to be a judge, thought I was going to get shot in Eersterust, got picked up by people from the McGillicudy Serious Party in New Zealand and made some great friends that I am still in touch with. It's a great way to meet people, to discover how helpful and friendly most people are.....and to have a few twitchy moments as well.