Hitch-hiker

[tamborine]

Would you pick one up? I did and my family have threatened to put me in a home ;)

[ayabrea38]

Not that you see that many now days...wonder why

[tamborine]

He was Albanian trying to get to hospital. I see quite a few on the hospital route as our buses only travel every 2hours.

[slinkycat]

It's considered the norm to hitchhike in Albania, as it was here many years ago. Crazy drivers though!

[tamborine]

I've hidden my car keys ;) So, fek 'em!

[tamborine]

another one down....and I've just come online - are you all avoiding me?

[Buenchico]

I've picked up hundreds of hitch-hikers (including one guy who was actually carrying a chainsaw!). Apart from a few people who've had 'personal hygiene issues', I've never had any problems. (I've been known to take detours of 150 miles just to give hitchers a helping hand).

I've also worked as a "trade plater", delivering cars across the country, and relying on benefactors to give me a free ride between jobs. I had to get over 3000 lifts during the two and half years that I did the job. Apart from one driver who had over a bottle of whisky inside him, I never had any worries about hitching.

In fact the only time during my trade-plating years that anything went seriously wrong on the road was when I couldn't face hitching one day, and caught the bus instead. The driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the bus through a line of trees, into the middle of a field. I still managed to hitch a lift from the middle of that field, courtesy of one of the lorry drivers who ran across the field to help!

[tamborine]

I've often picked them up & the trade-platers. I need to hit London on M4 most w/e & often stop for them on the slips. Am aware of my car & its abilities (power). A troublesome passenger could risk his own life if he got awkward. To date, I've never had a problem.

[Buenchico]

I learnt to work out who was most likely to give me lifts. A rough list (with the 'best bets' at the top) would look something like this:

1. Off-duty taxi drivers (e.g. on the 'empty' leg of an airport run).
2. Doctors.
3. Senior businessmen
4. Reps.
5. Truckers
etc.

Those who would almost never give me a lift included car transporter drivers (which was irritating because they were often going to exactly the same car storage area that I was trying to reach) and anyone wearing a dog collar. (So much for 'love thy neighbour', then!)

There were also some parts of the country where it was far easier to get lifts than in others. Hitching in Essex is usually easy. Hitching in Norfolk is near to impossible.

[tamborine]

What Chris......not a widow in an Xtype on your list? You like roughing it!

[Buenchico]

Did I mention the gender or marital status of any of the drivers in my post, Tamborine? I think not!

Actually I got a surprising number of lifts from women. For example, I ignored a car which stopped a little way past me on a slip road because the driver was a woman with a young child in the back seat. But she got out and shouted to me, offering me a lift. She turned out to be an off-duty taxi driver, who could cope with the Saturday night drunks in her car and who obviously thought that I posed less risk ;-)

One of the truckers who frequently gave me lifts was a woman, who always bitterly complained that her boss wasn't giving her enough of the East European jobs, where she'd be away from home (sleeping in the cab, in a country where she didn't speak a word of the language and where lorry-jacking might be common) for several weeks at a time.

I also remember a lift from a very 'upper crust' lady, in a Range Rover, who told me that she was sure that her husband wouldn't approve but who still drove me right into the yard of the place I wanted to go to.

Lady doctors (in their Jaguars, BMWs, etc) were also a good source of lifts.

[tamborine]

I hitched everywhere in my youth & never had any problems. My kids are paranoid about my antics but I feel horrors read in papers are so rare, that's why they make the news.

I've come across very diverse people going places & occupations I knew little about. I find them quite enlightening in most cases.

[society]

I'd follow my instincts on giving someone a ride.

I've only hitch-hiked once in my life and the driver was furious with me for hitch-hiking. He give a good telling-of and made me promise never to do that again. He said it was a dangerous thing to do.

[Sqad]

tambo...did the Albanian chap complete his journey without you molesting him?

[mccfluff]

i've hitched and picked people up, never had any problems

[Sqad]

In the open countryside.......NEVER.

In urban areas...Females...YES. Males...depending upon how they were dressed.

tambo,,,,things have changed since your "hitch hiking " days......more volatile and lawless.

[brenda]

I always use to give hitch hikers a lift , no probs, but now they take one look inside and decline. Think it must be my little snarling dog that does it ,She does not like strangers and is very protective of me.So looks like my good Samaritan days are well over.