[Albion] Do people still hitch hike ?

[Bodian]

Yes, I remember, in both the UK on on mainland Europe, that planning the place to hitch was very important - you had to give the drivers enough room to safely stop. Also, you had to be at a decent junction if heading long-distance - getting a lift a few miles was rarely worth it if you were going to end up in somewhere with much less traffic.

My favourite innovation was the cardboard sign covered with strong white plastic bag material. Then you could use a dry-wipe pen to write where you wanted to go and change it as you went along. Never could grasp why people wrote on cardboard after that...

Precisely what I used for almost a decade of hitching in Britain - along with a book that used to list all the best places to get lifts out of the busy conurbations (like how to get to the bottom of the M1). Mine was a piece of strong white cardboard covered in sticky backed plastic!

Regularly hitched between Southwick and South Cumbria. Out of the house at 6am, used to be at the other end at 3pm - not bad seeing as I lived over a mile up a track at the northern end. Managed it in two lifts once - firstly to Scratchwood, then to the Old Shoreham Road before the first chap had even ordered his cup of tea!

London was always the problem. Going northwards I used to get to the first tube, then out the Brent Cross. Coming south, get to Scratchwood services and have a sign saying 'Sussex-by-the-Sea' to get round the M25. Never failed.

Best place to hitch used to be Wales, where it was treated almost like public transport. Holland was also great, they used to have laybys with 'Lift Plaats' signs with a big thumb on them. Brilliant idea.

You couldn't get picked up along the A590 in Cumbria now - there's so much traffic no-one can pull over.

Shame really that a whole culture has simply disappeared.

 

[Napier]

I always used to hitch from the Lewes Road to Falmer in the 80s - we all used to queue every morning for a lift to the Uni and always got a lift.

 

[Gwylan]

Used to love hitching, did it for eight or nine years: often used to come down to Brighton to watch the Albion - hitch down on Sat morning, stay the night at my old man's and hitch back on Sunday. Over the years met some really interesting people - I even got a job as a result of hitching a ride with a CEO. Most luxurious ride was certainly in Tiny Rowland's Bentley (his chauffeur gave the lift not TR himself).

I then got a decent-paid job and stopped hitching - apart from one Sunday when I had a blazing row with my then girlfriend when we staying at her parents. I stormed out of the house and went home, forgetting that there's no public transport in Wales on Sunday morning. I couldn't go back so I hitched 25 miles to Cardiff - took me nearly four hours.

 

[GT49er]

There's still the ones who carry registration plates

Haven't seen one of those for ages - ten years? - maybe even twenty (and yes, I do drive a few thousand miles every year).

Not wishing to sound pedantic but those people with reg plates where not salesmen but usually delivery drivers returing to their base after dripping off a car I must say I havent seen one in ages. but then I rarely use the motorways where they stand at a junction.

It's always been illegal to stand on slip roads. In the 70s police started getting heavy with it instead of just moving people back - it's illegal (I believe) even on the roundabouts now as well.

You are right and what a shitty job that must have been.
You don't see them anymore, I hope they are treated properly by sending up another car so they can get a lift back or given the train fare home.
Always felt really sorry for them especially when it's was cold and wet.

They usually were given the train fare home; they just saved the money by hitching.

And no, I never gave one or any hitch hiker a lift.

Well, bully for you!

 

[maffew]

I got picked up by the old bill in Northern Honduras totally marooned in a port town, then 21 years of age with a lovely blonde girlfriend. Oh how naive and innocent we were. Managed to get out of Honduras on a converted canal barge going to Belize with 2 outboard motors and loads of immigrants and pretty much hitched all the way through Belize, Mexico, plane back to Gatwick, and a final ride with 2 gay guys who had a massive argument for picking us up (and had a chainsaw in the back seat). The only money spend on the was home was the last 20 miles as couldnt get a lift from Birmingham to Worcester and reluctantly had to get the train, very disappointed

 

[catfish]

I hitched to Stonehenge & Glastonbury festivals in the early 80's without any bother and even used to thumb a lift to Salisbury to visit my folks, saving a few quid in train fare.
Wouldn't consider doing it now though.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I see the trade plate guys a lot on the motorways.

My car is full of kid shit though so never have room.

 

[maffew]

I hitched to Stonehenge & Glastonbury festivals in the early 80's without any bother and even used to thumb a lift to Salisbury to visit my folks, saving a few quid in train fare.
Wouldn't consider doing it now though.

I hitched to Glasto once and the traffic was that bad that the couple who picked us up ended up walking to the festival with us god knows how miles

Hitched to Reading (well WOMAD) once. Got picked up by some lovely people in a split screen camper with an awning which was great as didnt take a tent so got somewhere to sleep too!

 

[BLOCK F]

Hitched to Italy and back a couple of times in the mid 1960's.
Great times and met a lot of interesting and kind people.
The day of the World Cup Final in '66, my mate and I were in Germany, on our way to Italy. Got picked up in a big Merc and dropped in a village somewhere in rural Bavaria; went to the bakery shop to buy some bread and were invited in to the back of the shop to watch the match. Plenty of good beer and wurst was consumed.Friendly atmosphere in the local inn that evening, we were bought loads of beer and food and they wouldn't let us pay!
When we finally made it to Italy, I can remember the Italians always wanting to talk about Bobby Charlton........no-one else.
Happy carefree days!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Funnily enough I saw a couple hitching today when I was out running.

 

[Bodian]

Funnily enough I saw a couple hitching today when I was out running.

Did you give them a lift?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Did you give them a lift?

They turned him down....too slow

 

[sully]

London was always the problem. Going northwards I used to get to the first tube, then out the Brent Cross. Coming south, get to Scratchwood services and have a sign saying 'Sussex-by-the-Sea' to get round the M25. Never failed.

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.

 

[aberllefenni]

I didn't pass my driving test until my late 20's, so did a load of hitching before that. I think I probably did over 100 000 miles in a period of 13-14 years, mainly in GB and Ireland. For most of this time I lived in Mid-Wales so Gwylan is right when he says it was pretty much treated as public transport. Even the most reluctant drivers couldn't use the argument that "well, he should get a bus" when there wasn't one, and if it did exist it only ran once a week. Travelling north/south was a lot easier than east/west (with the exception of the M4). I didn't use a whiteboard but had a few cardboard files which, if you folded in half, could get 8 destinations on there. As a last resort I'd hold the sign upside down, you'd be surprised how many would stop to point that out, giving you chance to negotiate a lift.

 

[Sorrel]

I didn't pass my driving test until my late 20's, so did a load of hitching before that. I think I probably did over 100 000 miles in a period of 13-14 years, mainly in GB and Ireland. For most of this time I lived in Mid-Wales so Gwylan is right when he says it was pretty much treated as public transport. Even the most reluctant drivers couldn't use the argument that "well, he should get a bus" when there wasn't one, and if it did exist it only ran once a week. Travelling north/south was a lot easier than east/west (with the exception of the M4). I didn't use a whiteboard but had a few cardboard files which, if you folded in half, could get 8 destinations on there. As a last resort I'd hold the sign upside down, you'd be surprised how many would stop to point that out, giving you chance to negotiate a lift.

With Wales I would have thought you would need quite long bits of cardboard.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Did you give them a lift?

They weren’t going my way unfortunately.

 

[Dick Head]

Seen a few on the coast road in Telscombe recently. Walked past one on the way to the pub on Friday night as it goes.

Didn't you offer them a piggyback?

 

[GT49er]

At our work we get new cars delivered, these lads get train fees given to them to get back home, a lot of them keep the funds and try to hitch home, they use the trade plates, as they're used to deliver the cars.

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.

 

[BensGrandad]

Pre M25 days there was always a few at the start of the M1 joining from the North Circular and headed back to what was Rootes at Coventry on the A45.

ps Just remembered the name of the junction it was Staples Corner.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/sexy-woman-hitchhiking
regards
DR