Hitching, a dying art form

Back in the ‘good old days’ it was quite common to see men and women of all age groups standing alongside slip-roads with their thumbs out and back pack leaning against a sign post nearby hoping to catch a ride getting them one step closer to their final destination. ‘Newcastle’ a young man with hope in his eyes had written on his piece of cardboard restless waving it at passing trucks and cars on the on a slip-road from a service station just off the M11 near Brentford. But these days are now apparently over as a recent AA survey suggests that the number of drivers unlikely to stop for hitchhikers has risen from 75 % to 91% in the last two years alone. And amongst the 9 % of drivers who said they would consider stopping for a hitchhiker, only a minority said they were ‘very likely’ to stop and pick up someone standing there with their thumb out. Hitchhiking seems to be a dying art with 93 % of 18-24 year olds surveyed saying they’ve never tried it while the corresponding figure amongst 55-65 year olds was 48 %. The survey also showed that you were least likely to get a lift in East Anglia and the North-West of England while as many as 12% of Welsh drivers said they were likely to pick up hitchhikers. So with only 9% left wanting the company of a stranger on their journey, gone are the days where bored drivers of vans in Kent would pick up a fellow human being in need to make both their journeys go quicker. Mind you, with the chances of ever being picked up by drivers being so slim, you’d be hard press to find any hitchhikers willing to try their luck at this waiting game at all these days. And the reason for both the rapid decline in hitchhikers and in drivers willing to pick them up? Well, if you haven’t tried it yourself you’re less likely to pick up others and many previously potential hitchhikers now take their chances at coach travel instead. Not only is it cheap, it’s also safer.