[Albion] Do people still hitch hike ?

[Bodian]

I think you’re getting confused.

Scratchwood would surely have been pre M25. I can’t remember the last time I went there. Is it still in use, even?

Would have been North & South Circular in those days.

Yes - you're right. I've confused it with Toddington. That's the last one before the M25 coming south that I used to aim for.

 

[Klaas]

I hitch hiked across Europe in 1992 and used to do it as a teenager if I missed the bus or couldn't get somewhere.

Once picked up by a bloke with hair like this :


He was very, very talkative, and very friendly. He suggested we met and went for a walk on some common the coming Monday. Said he'd bring some beers.

I said that here was fine thanks, see ya.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Just out of interest, where are these lads hitching to and from? Quite seriously, I haven't seen a 'trade' hitch-hiker since at least the 1980s, and I do at least 6-10K miles a year (and in the 90s it was more like 30K in the job I had back then).
And I can't remember the last time I saw any kind of hitch-hiker at a motorway junction or a service station.

Nowadays, it more for the retired folk who do this job for fun, normally they pick the vehicle from port or depot, drop off at destination, then go home.

 

[Peter Grummit]

Hitched a lot in the early 80s when a student. Once got a single lift from Withdean to Warwick Uni but had to work my passage, helping out with deliveries up the Grand Union Canal. Also, got down to the Cote D'Azure in 2 days, possibly helped by the fact as I was with a 20yo blonde girl. We had a Union flag sign to wave if we saw a GB numberplate and this led to a lift from St Tropez in a British Rolls Royce - not exactly slumming it!

Used to hitch into Brighton from Westdene to save the bus fare and got picked up by a Salford Van Hire full of Mancs slumped in the back - no seats. We beat City 4-0 that day - FAC 1983.

Great thing about hitching - as well as saving money - was you met people and much more memorable than train/coach.

PG

 

[Marty McFly]

I'm 29 and still hitchhike semi regularly. I think it's something like 150ish+ lifts in 17 countries to date.

Easiest places have been Eastern Canada, New Zealand, and Norway. By the far the hardest - in terms of finding spots, getting rides, and treatment by drivers - has been England.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I used to hitch round Europe when I was 16.

Me and my Girlfriend at the time got a cracking lift from Paris to Biarritz in a Merc with this French bloke who was smuggling opiumated hash to the south.

That ride is a bit of a blur tbh but the bloke was brilliant. He couldn't speak a word of English and our French was remedial but we got on like a house on fire.

The smoke billowing out of his car made us look like we were in a "Cheech and Chong" Movie.