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Comment by S_A_P | Hacker News Reader

The concept of hitchhiking is such an anachronism now that I had to suspend disbelief as I watched “once upon a time I Hollywood” that I spent most of the time reconciling being the hitchhiker and the driver and why either side would feel like this is a rational option.

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I don’t know when but hitchhiking from roadways (it’s okay from parking lots and similar) became an offense in California sometime in the seventies I guess. That said I’ve picked up hitchhikers a couple of times but not just random people. The context is broken down car, but not s beater, and people didn’t look out of place (suspicious). But yeah it’s s rarity.

I worked in Boston in the 90s. A couple of coworkers would use a week’s vacation time to just hitchhike around New England. They had a cabin in Vermont, sometimes they made it to the cabin, sometimes they went to other places. They always got picked up and were usually given lodging. But if they slept in a park they were happy too. They loved doing it.

I still hitchhike occasionally. One time when my motorcycle overheated, twice more when I ran into trouble on mountain bike trips. It usually takes a long time until someone offers a ride. Last month I picked up a guy on I-82 who had run out of gas - as a way to repay the kindness I had received on those other occasions.

I picked up a hitchiker about three weeks ago? It's not the norm for me (my wife hates it) but not that unusual. These aren't for mega journeys though. I live in a commuter town near a city so it's usually along that route.

Eh?

I picked up hitchhikers last week.

I went hitchhiking myself two or three years ago.

I don't understand what's anachronistic about it at all.

It's like different parts of the world had different habits regarding hitchhiking. Intriguing!

Here in northern Mexico, I hitchhiked a couple of times in the early 90s, when I was a poor student and didn't have enough money to travel 100 Km. When I had my own car, I picked up people on the same road if I was riding alone, to pay it forward. That wouldn't fly now, because that region is rife with thievery thanks to government inaction.

I guess now that I'm older, I wouldn't pick hitchhikers even if there was no crime, because while most are just regular people having a hard time, a few were frankly scary.

Indeed. But I'm not sure that makes it 'anachronistic'. More that some places are, well, more dangerous.

On both sides there's a bit of eyeballing I reckon.

At a rest stop you can often chat to hitchhikers before they even know you have a car.

It wouldn't surprise me that in the US (particularly around major cities) hitchhiking is considered dangerous because, well, the US has severe issues with mentally unwell individuals on a scale that simply isn't present in other cities (e.g. the people who have basically fallen out of society you'll see on SF/NY subways; not merely homeless but severely mentally ill).

I would guess without having been there that hitchhiking in the more rural states would be fine.

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