HERE in snow country we have a couple of spots that hitchhikers tend to use, one at each end of town. That they are no stopping zones, clearly marked, doesn't deter them, so motorists who stop are risking a ticket. It is not the safest place to pull over. I wonder if any of them see the signs. Walking down the road to the end of the zone is a better bet.
I had to hitchhike a lot in the early racing days in the UK, so it is easy to understand the problems. There were some long hours at the side of the road, because in the rural parts of Norfolk strangers were viewed with some suspicion. I even accepted a ride on the trailer behind an ancient farm tractor, then fell asleep and missed my destination.
The difficulty with some hitchhikers is that they get hostile if you pass them by. They see an empty seat and assume you should stop. They don't know if you are picking someone up, don't want the company, or are sick with the flu. Perhaps your car has no passenger seat cushion. They are, after all, asking a favour, and are entering another person's private space. Then there are those who are sucking on a cigarette while waiting for a ride. Non-smokers generally cannot stand the smell. That discourages me, at any rate.
It is tough, and maybe dangerous, for some people to pick up hitchhikers. A young mother or elderly person might be understandably reluctant to stop. I was almost caught out once, in Georgia, when I stopped to give someone a ride, and two people jumped out of the ditch behind me, obviously with nothing good in mind.
The last time I thumbed it was when my car broke down in the bush, on a bleak rainy day. By the time I hiked out to the highway, I looked pretty ragged, and it took a while to get a ride. An eccentric fellow in an old Thunderbird did stop, and gave me a good scare driving to the next village. It makes a good road story, though.
Travel the highways long enough and you'll find some odd situations. The couple I stopped to help in the Florida Everglades, broken down with an old V8 Dodge, were apparently eloping. On another occasion, my car ran out of gas around midnight on a lonely New Brunswick road, far from the nearest filling station. The fellow who picked me up said he had just crawled out of his girlfriend's bedroom window because her dad had locked him in and was threatening to kill him.
There is a lot to looking like you will be pleasant company. Clean clothes and a smile help, as does not crowding the road in a dangerous fashion. Knowing how some people zone out behind the wheel, that is asking for trouble. Hitchhikers wearing dark clothing at night are a menace to themselves. My eyesight is excellent, the car has great lights, and I still find them hard to see at times. I would think people with poor vision don't notice these folks at all, and miss them by luck not judgment.
Hitchhiking itself is not the safest activity. You are putting your life in a stranger's hands, and while it usually works out fine we have all heard the tragic stories. For both the driver and the person standing on the shoulder, there is an element of risk that should be carefully considered.
I will still pull over for the occasional hitchhiker, but unless you can leap in the side window, it won't be in a no-stopping zone.
Alan Sidorov is an experienced automotive racer, product tester and freelance journalist. You can contact Alan through the website below.
www.spdt.ca
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