Hitch hikers were once able to rely on the kindness of haulage companies whose friendly drivers would oblige with a lift. How often do we see hitch hikers on our roads nowadays?

As the number of vehicles on our roads grows at a remarkable rate, the culture of hitchhiking has changed. An AA survey of its members once found that three quarters of drivers would never consider stopping to help someone thumbing a lift. I’m sure the odds feel much worse for those standing at the roadside for hours without a ride.

In the fifties, hitch hiking was an acceptable way for young people to travel, and a few decades ago it was still possible to hitch-hike from London to Birmingham faster than the train could get there. More recently, drivers have become reluctant to stop for hitch hikers, perhaps because of media-generated hysteria, or perhaps as a result of haulage companies, who must bear the burden of health and safety measures, changing their policies. We all know that the likelihood of picking up a dangerous criminal is low, and that a hitchhiker suffering at the hands of an unsavoury driver is unlikely, but the practise seems to have all but disappeared.

Hitching Around the World

Hitchhiking culture varies from country to country. The practise is illegal in many nations, while almost a way of life in others. In Moscow, you can hail down almost anyone driving a car and they will become a de facto taxi for a few dollars. In Cuba, drivers will expect to collect a hitcher from time to time, simply because most people in the country don’t have cars. Some hitch hikers travelling across Europe have reported the kindness of lorry drivers, who contacted other haulage companies over the radio to arrange the hiker’s next lift.

The Seductive Approach

The age old tactic of ‘showing a little leg’ isn’t always as reliable as you would expect. In 1966, a Prague newspaper reported on three young Czech girl hitchers who took this ploy to extremes. Weary of waiting as countless cars streamed by, they stripped down to their birthday suits in the hope of tempting lonely truckers from their haulage work.

But the strippers had no success. The drivers that passed that day must have been strait-laced or timid folk because after hours of standing naked the only vehicle that stopped for them was a police car. Somehow, I think if this were to happen in the UK, the buttoned-down ‘British Reserve’ would be abandoned, and you’d see entire haulage companies queuing along the hard shoulder to help the naked nymphs!

Stuck in the Desert

There are a number of interesting hitch hiking stories and legends, many of which have kindness as the common thread and feature a good-hearted driver who has taken time out from his haulage work to help those in need.

One such incident has been told by a hapless American hitcher who was taking a journey out of Tucson, Arizona. The haulage work of the trucker he was riding with on this occasion meant their destinations weren’t the same, and they had to part ways. This meant the hitcher was left on a desolate road "somewhere in the middle of the desert." He was then stuck there for two days waiting for another ride, and almost run out of water. Just as his thirst forced him to drink the last drop, another truck pulled over and offered him a lift. The strange thing was that in the saviour’s cab were two canteens full of water that the trucker handed to him readily. The last hitchhiker the saviour-trucker had helped had left the canteens behind just a few days earlier. What luck!