Hitchhikers

djcla

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Anyone ever picked up someone on the side of the road flagging for a lift ? i always see them and fear i might get attacked or something so leave them there so never tempted to stop. Just wondered if any folk on Avforums had some storys to tell on the subject?
 
I always pick up hitchers if I have room. I used to travel all over the place by thumbing it...good fun.
 
A couple of times, usually people wanting to go up the motorway - seem to get a lot of them here at MK wanting to go North, picked up a couple of students once who were working their way back up to Leeds after going to France to watch some rugby game, and had spent nearly all of their money on tickets and had to hitch hike their way there and back - that's what they said, though I don't believe that at all as they probably wanted all their money for booze, but fair play to them - had some good stories and I figure they do that kind of thing regularly by the sounds of it.

Another time was a Polish chap on his way up to Glasgow for work.
Really nice guy, smelt a bit funky though :laugh:

I generally have no issue with it, but understand why a lot of people wouldn't do it.

Locally I've picked a few of the chaps up who drop cars off or whatever - the ones with the signs, but that's different.
 
Horror movies come to mind with scenes of dying a bloody death or ending up like Iccz's avatar.

I likely wouldnt give a stranger a lift.
 
I find they all look strangely like Rutger Hauer when I see one on the side of the road so never stop! :eek:
 
I have given them a lift a couple of times. I have also had to hitch in my younger days when I thought it would be cleverer to spend the last of my money on beer rather than a train ticket. I once missed the last bus/train when going on leave and rather than bother my family, I thought I would walk/hitch. I think I walked 25 miles in the rain and got a lift for the last 10. I was extremely grateful for the lift I can tell you.
 
I never have. To be honest I'm rarely on the motorway. If I was I probably wouldn't. Can't be bothered with the small talk and prefer to listen to music and fart in my car with out having to worry about offending the passengers.
 
I almost always pick up hitchers if I don't have the kids in the car and I'm travelling a significant distance on main roads etc.

I hitched all over the UK in my late teens and early twenties, so know how hard it can be. As a hitcher I had a few dicey moments, and a couple of propositions :eek:
 
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I used to hitchhike everywhere from the age of 14 -17

the most memorable was going from Stafford to Lichfield and getting picked up by a rep who was smoking the biggest spliff i had ever seen.

He told me he got paid massive amounts of money to drive round the country stoned !

I always used to carry a motorbike helmet because people would pick me up thinking i had broken down .
But one day a bloke on a 1200 Yamaha picked me up and scared the **** out of me for the whole 12 mile lift :(
 
Cross referencing another thread, there's a reservoir near us that has a hitchhiker. Legend has it that he disappears from your car 2 miles after picking him up. I always think about this story travelling late at night on my own.
 
I don't drive that much any more but I generally pick up the trade plate guys if convenient and safe to do so.

The most remarkable one for me was as I was leaving the Munich High End Audio show to drive back to the UK, we saw a guy trying to hitch a lift by the side of the road. Readying our schoolboy German, we found that he was actually a Brit looking to get to just off Junction 13 of the M1. He was astonished when we told him he could ride all the way* as I would be driving to just off Junction 14 of the M1. I'm not sure what the odds were for that.

*He dismounted to board the ferry as a foot passenger but left the Ferry in the car.
 
Amazing, I almost started a thread on this a day or two ago!

Personally I would never pickup a hitchhiker. Like the OP I always drive on by - allowing a total stranger into your car is just asking for trouble IMHO. What if he cuts your throat and steels your car? Would be easy enough to do...
 
:devil: maybe it's YOU the hitch hikers' should be worried about.
None of them have had anything I wanted else I would have stopped! :D :devil:
 
Yes, indeed. Please do spill the beans.

There was one woman, late forties driving a Scirocco who made lots of suggestive remarks - being a confident young buck, I played along.. Then she asked me if I was any good with electrics as she had a lightbulb that needed changing.. In her bedroom. I made my excuses.

Then there a bloke who chatted away, then asked me if I was discreet... To cut a long story short, he wanted me to service his wife while he watched. I literally jumped out of his car.

I got picked up in stolen cars several times.

I think the strangest one was hitching from Birmingham to Minehead in Somerset.. I managed it in 3 lifts, but the weird thing was that with each lift, it turned out we had mutal acquaintances.

That said, the vast majority of lifts were quite dull.
 
Amazing, I almost started a thread on this a day or two ago!

Personally I would never pickup a hitchhiker. Like the OP I always drive on by - allowing a total stranger into your car is just asking for trouble IMHO. What if he cuts your throat and steels your car? Would be easy enough to do...

I would think the car being stolen would be the least of your worries :D
 
we exercise this project immense in wilderness(fotos of course not reality), day or night, however trucks never stop ...

also cars never stop ... really! fools
 
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Maybe the photographer stood not far behind her is a bit of a giveaway?
 
I've been known to stop for those blokes you see holding trade numberplates at the side of the road.
They're paid to deliver cars, and they're given an allowance to get home by bus/train.
But they usually try hitching so they can pocket the money.
One of them was a really good laugh, ex-army and spending his retirement driving cars all over the country, from humble runabouts to exotic supercars.
:cool:
 

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