Hitch Hikers?

JupiterKid

Well, whatever happened to them? Back in the 80s hitch hikers were everywhere, thumbing for lifts on all the main routes out of our towns and cities.

The reason I ask is that whilst driving down in Wexford today I spotted one. It made me realise that you don't see hitch hikers these days. Why is that?

Is it because people see hitch hiking as too risky, that practically everyone has a car or that pretty much everyone can afford a bus/train ticket?

So what happened to the hitch hikers?

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Money was a myth back in the 80's, people had to hitch for a lift as they didn't have cars. Car ownership skyrocketed in the late 90's and early 2000's.

Samaris

JupiterKid wrote: »

Is it because people see hitch hiking as too risky, that practically everyone has a car or that pretty much everyone can afford a bus/train ticket?

So what happened to the hitch hikers?

Bit of all three. My generation were brought up with the dangers of thumbing lifts, especially young women, absolutely drilled into us.

As for what happened to them, a significant enough percentage ended up murdered for my to not be overly surprised at parents worrying.

maudgonner

What happened to the hitch hikers?

They all got lifts in the back of farmer's vans and took a sneaky swig of red lemonade from a bottle they spotted on the floor.

Turned out it wasn't red lemonade at all, but poison! :eek:

So they're all hitchhiking on the Stairway to Heaven now.



This post is brought to you courtesy of 'Classic Urban Myths Vol.9' (c)1992.

andekwarhola

Still see the odd one out west when I'm visiting the in-laws. Usually well drunk types (presumably banned from driving) or hippy types. I'd usually give them a lift if I'm by myself.

schizo1014

I still thumb the odd time but I think people driving think its risky to pick me up. Actually the most recent time I got lifts, one was a black fella and the other was Polish.

B.A._Baracus

I'd say the biggest reason is the risk.
You don't know who you are letting in to your car and you don't know whose car you're getting in to.

Also we live in a sue-culture society now.

dr.fuzzenstein

It's not risk, just no bugger will pick you up these days. So any hitch-hiker will give up after about three days of not being picked up and that's the end of that.

uch

Last time I had to do this was on the Cork/Kerry border about 15 years ago and they'd all stop for ye, and ask where yer goin and if you were'nt in the right direction they'd carry on, but every car stopped


Should add Cork and Kerry County people are Cool

B.A._Baracus

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

It's not risk, just no bugger will pick you up these days. So any hitch-hiker will give up after about three days of not being picked up and that's the end of that.

True.
Don't expect someone to do you a favor, let alone a stranger as they say.

Arghus

I used to hitch-hike all the time, a short journey regularly, several times a week. I think the main reason you don't see it as much any more is because more young people have cars more than they would have had in the past; a lot of my peers had cars, I did not.

I think people are also generally less inclined to give lifts, for whatever reason. I wouldn't put in down solely to what's often said: people are afraid of potential legal bother if something goes wrong. Some people may think this way, but I think most drivers don't even let the potential for accidents into their heads at any time. I think the paucity of lifts has more to do with how people just increasingly don't really feel that bothered about stopping, which is fair enough. Life is busier and busier for people all the time too, they've got places to be and, being Irish, they are usually in rush getting there, who needs the extra pain in the arse of picking some stranger up?

That said, I'd always manage to get a lift, even if it took a while sometimes. And 99% of the time the people who would pick me up were always bang on individuals, from all walks of life. I would get the odd nutter though. It was always the most awkward of moments, when some person would skid to a halt beside me and I would know, just know, that I had a crazy on my hands. Often it was the state of their car that gave the game away. They'd seen that I was stood there, looking for a lift, they were stopping to give me that lift. How was I to escape from this sitaution? Because part of me was slightly afraid for my life...

Dpg21

I've actually done a lot of hitch hiking in New Zealand, a couple of thousand km in Australia and a small bit in Asia, but for some reason, iv no idea why but I would never hitch hike in Ireland, I just think people's attitudes towards hitch hiking is a lot different from other countries and you would struggle to get picked up,

uch

Arghus wrote: »

I used to hitch-hike all the time, a short journey regularly, several times a week. I think the main reason you don't see it as much any more is because more young people have cars more than they would have had in the past; a lot of my peers had cars, I did not.

I think people are also generally less inclined to give lifts, for whatever reason. I wouldn't put in down solely to what's often said: people are afraid of potential legal bother if something goes wrong. Some people may think this way, but I think most drivers don't even let the potential for accidents into their heads at any time. I think the paucity of lifts has more to do with how people just increasingly don't really feel that bothered about stopping, which is fair enough. Life is busier and busier for people all the time too, they've got places to be and, being Irish, they are usually in rush getting there, who needs the extra pain in the arse of picking some stranger up?

That said, I'd always manage to get a lift, even if it took a while sometimes. And 99% of the time the people who would pick me up were always bang on individuals, from all walks of life. I would get the odd nutter though. It was always the most awkward of moments, when some person would skid to a halt beside me and I would know, just know, that I had a crazy on my hands. Often it was the state of their car that gave the game away. They'd seen that I was stood there, looking for a lift, they were stopping to give me that lift. How was I to escape from this sitaution? Because part of me was slightly afraid for my life...

Can I have a Blast out of that ?

Arghus

uch wrote: »

Can I have a Blast out of that ?

It never got as far as that. But I was offered a can a few times by people who were driving, if they were offering usually they were having one themselves.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

Your Face

Ah yea the 80s, you could leave the key in the door back then...

timthumbni

Rutger Hauer put an end to that hitchhiking nonsense for me. That guy probably left millions of hitchhikers worldwide sitting wondering if walking may be a better option.

dr.fuzzenstein

Actually still see hitchers on the weekend going from Ennis to Lahinch. If I don't pick them up its because I got the Rottweiler in the passenger's seat and three dogs in the back.

The Highwayman

I gave a lift to a guy in Kerry last summer, myself and my German girlfriend were on holidays. She thought it was weird but I explained I'd done it as a student all over the country and never had a problem doing it.
Certainly not as common as it used to be but in Donegal and the west you still see it.

SEPT 23 1989

There used to be a q of them at Newlands Cross every Friday holding up their cardboard signs with their chosen country destinations scrawled across them

Wanderer78

Met a Dutch guy in New Zealand years ago that hitched his way round the whole country. Sounded like the best way to see the country

Fr Tod Umptious

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

They used to be a q of them at Newlands Cross every Friday holding up their cardboard signs with their chosen country destinations scrawled across them

Same on the road out of Maynooth, people would get the bus to Maynooth and thumb from there.

I think the main reason its gone is because people have more cars.

Students and ypung people have cars so they dont need to tumb home on a weekend

Families usually have more than one car.

As a youth I used to thumb in and out of "town" every Saturday afternoon, a distance of about 5 miles, now a days the equivalent youth gets a lift cos there is a spare car in the house for that sort of stuff.

CelticRambler

Motorways: chances are, if you're looking for a long distance lift, the person who might give you one will be using the motorway and you simply won't be able to attract their attention.

And risk. We still get the odd one here in France, and I'll almost always stop to offer a lift (provided they're standing somewhere sensible and I haven't got twenty impatient Frenchmen behind me) but I had my sister with me once and she wouldn't let me stop. My "personal chauffeur" back in Ireland is the same.

I work on the basis that 99.95% of people are not psychopathic serial killers, and have never had a problem. At worst, you get someone a bit boring; at best, it turns a long and boring journey into great craic.

Dpg21

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Met a Dutch guy in New Zealand years ago that hitched his way round the whole country. Sounded like the best way to see the country

Yeah IMO New Zealand is the best country to hitch hike in, I done the whole country and I'd say twenty minutes is the longest I was standing with my sign to get a lift, I even ended up sharing a apartment with some people that picked me up, we still keep in contact and are planning to meet up in France at some stage

seamus

Had a housemate back in the early 00s who thought nothing of hitching from Dublin back home to Sligo and vice-versa.

Said he grew up doing it; from 6 or 7 years of age you'd hitch 10 miles to the local town and back out again and as you got older, the distances got longer.
If your family had a car, you only had one and your Dad drove it to work. So if you needed to go somewhere, hitching was your only choice.

The fact that every family has two cars and that most main routes are motorways or dual carriageways is what killed the practice.

SEPT 23 1989

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

There used to be a q of them at Newlands Cross every Friday holding up their cardboard signs with their chosen country destinations scrawled across them

The motorway's and fly-overs have done away with a lot of that but I"m sure there are other reasons also