Do you ever see hitchhikers these days?

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In the 'seventies, hitchikers were a pretty common sight.
A buddy and I actually hitched home from college one weekend, a distance of about 250 miles.
I recall hitching to get to work a couple of days when I was young, poor and single due to car trouble that I had yet to resolve, although I did after a couple of days.
My sweet lady boss actually lent me her car to take to an out of town job interview, a position I ended up getting and taking.
Anyway, I almost never see a hitchiker anymore and those I do see are usually very scruffy looking people who are likely homeless.
What happened to this once common mode of free trasnportation?
 
People have become more paranoid and watch too many TV shows/movies in which hitchhikers are serial killers/rapists/all around baddies or the drivers picking up the hitchhikers have those traits. So nobody risks picking them up or trying to hitch.

That being said, I would never pick up a hitchhiker or hitch myself.
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IMO once it reached a critical mass of scruffy types the legit ones stopped doing it and then it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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was hitching popular before the late 1960s and hippies?

Remember the urban crime of the late 70s, "summer of Sam" and all that? This might have made the knowledge and suspicion of anti-social behavior a nationwide "thing".

When I ran out of gas on the Maine Turnpike and was hoofing it a mile to the Kennebunk service plaza, I was picked up in 30 seconds, and didn't even have my thumb out. In fact the guy who picked me up probably saw me exit my car in the breakdown lane.
 
FDCG27: Correct me if I am wrong, but nowadays isnt hitchhiking illegal in most of the U.S.A.? I have saw some down here, myself but never picked any of them up as they do look pretty rough. I remember my grandpa telling me about "hobos" on trains, though never about hitchhikers.
 
I picked up a father and young son on I-71 south of Columbus one day.
They had run out of gas, so I took them to a station, the guy filled the gas can he'd brought with him, I took them back to their car and saw that they were able to get on their way before leaving.
One day, I was driving up I-75 between Dayton and Cincinnati when I discovered what the worsening vibration was in my MGB. The front u-joint broke. This made a horrible noise as the driveshaft battered its way around under the car. I pulled off the road and started walking. A nice young Mexican guy who spoke very little English picked me up and drove me home.
I had the car towed home and had it fixed the next day.
 
I can't imagine that most people would feel safe.

Flipping the question - did there used to be as many sign-holding beggars as I see these days? Not many around here, but in the cities and in the midwest I see a LOT.
 
It's often "the poors" who pick up hitchhikers, or for that matter, offer jump starts.
 
I surely dont . A friend of mines Father was stabbed by a hitchhiker on 395 going into DC one night. My fathers friend is a gnarly Marine Vietnam Vet and he defended himself by throwing the guy out of the car at 60mph and continued to drive home with a knife in his shoulder. He wasnt even going to go to the Hospital till his wife made him lol . Every time I see a hitchhiker I think of my friends dad.d
 
I've never seen anyone outside of Lakewood trying to hitchhike. Inside Lakewood it's different. There's a large Orthodox community there and for a lot of people, hitchhiking is just how they normally get to work and back. Even children hitchhike there and nobody is worried about the safety of it. The Orthodox generally don't go around mugging, kidnapping, or murdering their own.
 
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Years ago my buddy who was married at the time saw a very attractive middle aged women thumbing it along Rt 8. So he stopped and it turns out she just broke up with her husband and ran out the door. So he took her to her sisters house and she bought him coffee as thanks.

He said he stopped because she looked out of place, ie nicely dressed, but no coat, it was winter.
 
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Originally Posted By: Thax
I surely dont . A friend of mines Father was stabbed by a hitchhiker on 395 going into DC one night. My fathers friend is a gnarly Marine Vietnam Vet and he defended himself by throwing the guy out of the car at 60mph and continued to drive home with a knife in his shoulder. He wasnt even going to go to the Hospital till his wife made him lol . Every time I see a hitchhiker I think of my friends dad.d


It's a real shame, you never if the person you're picking up is just down on their luck or is looking to stab you in your shoulder.
 
My dad hitchhiked his way back to Ft Bragg when his '56 Chevy's transmission went belly up in the Tennessee mountains.

I remember him saying that if you were in uniform, one of two things would happen when you stuck your thumb up on the side of the road in the '60s. You had a beer bottle launched at you by "peace loving" hippies or you got a ride.

In Tennessee in those days, you got a ride. Probably from someone who recognized the "All American" bookends on your shoulders, CIB, and Infantry cord because he had earned his in Europe. Or maybe a Marine who had stormed beaches in the South Pacific. Can't say the same thing for California.
 
I still see them from time to time as I travel around, but they are far less numerous than they were some years ago. While working in Colorado in the mid-nineties, I stopped and gave a guy a ride to the next town. He was in a U-Haul truck towing a car and had the hood up. I could tell by the way that he was kicking the tire on the truck. the odds of him looking to rob someone was pretty low. I stopped for gas at the exit and he assumed that I wanted him to pay for some gas, but I let him know that I was stopping anyway and he did not owe me a thing. He was just having a bad day and could not thank me enough when I dropped him at the police station so he could get assistance.
 
I will stop once in a while to offer a ride, but the last guy was thumbing it to go see his parole officer for his regular check in.
 
I still see scruffy vagrants with their thumb in the air.

The modern version is posting an ad on Craigslist stating your destination and travel dates. The examples I've seen are college students.
 
Hello, Just to "log in", no, I don't see them. One a year around Northern NJ all the way up to the Adirondack Mountains. I used to hitch all the time. Kira
 
I used to hitch in the sixties. My grandpa, dad, and many I knew picked up hitchhikers. These days, I don't give rides very often. Never if the wife or my mother is in the car.

No one was more surprised than I a couple of months ago. Suddenly for no reason I stopped for an old guy walking north of the interstate in a direction away from town. White hair in a pony tail with a goatee. He looked at me and the old truck and said no thanks.lol

I asked again and he got in. Asked where he was going and he said the VFW. Which was south of the interstate and east of town. I knew he wasn't a member. Never had seen him around town. All things considered, I should have ended it right there. But I turned around and took him. On the trip he was not very communicative. Perhaps thought I was an axe murderer or something. I told him I could take him to a Veterans Service Officer. No thanks. Caring Center. No thanks. At the VFW he hopped out and said thanks.

I have seen him a couple of times walking around since. But never at the VFW. Keep thinking I'll find out something about him one of these days. I generally pick up a hitch hiker once every year or two. Always on intuition. Probably not smart at my age.
 
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