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I've been thinking back when I was a teen, in the early '80's. I hitchhiked and thought nothing of it. I did such foolish things. I was lucky nothing bad happened to me.
Anybody else hitch hike?
The kook factor probably hasn't changed nearly as much as 1) the risk-assessment factor, and 2) changes in the law driven by those risk assessments. It's one of those things where bad things happened to a few people, so they banned it for the well-being of us peons who are obviously incapable of assuming any risks for ourselves. So now that hitch-hiking is illegal, guess who today's hitch-hikers are more likely to be? (Hint: not lovable hippies trying to make their way across our great country.)
Teenagers just don't think through consequences. I used to hitchhike occasionally in the 70's. I nearly got molested once, and got more careful after that...but...I did do it a few times after that!!!
Thinking back on parts of my youth just makes me shudder.
I never hitchhiked. I was a child in the 70s and a teen in the 80s. I kind of think the hippie culture of the late 60s early 70s gave rise to a lot of hitching.
But unfortunately, the 70s was a heyday for serial killers. Most of the really famous serial killers never would have succeeded if hitch hiking hadn't been so popular. Serial killers were/are not common, but in the 70s, there was such a big cluster of them.
As a kid I remember seeing TV reports about Ted Bundy's killings, and teachers warning us (at a really young age!) about never hitchhiking when we got older. In my teens in the 80s, I got into reading true-crime, and learned about other serial killers who preyed on hitch hikers, or who hitched in order to make victims out of the unsuspecting drivers.
So by the time I was old enough to drive, or old enough to even consider hitchhiking, I was pretty sure I never wanted to get involved in it.
I never see younger people or people my age hitch hiking. Only an occasional scruffy older guy.
The kook factor probably hasn't changed nearly as much as 1) the risk-assessment factor, and 2) changes in the law driven by those risk assessments. It's one of those things where bad things happened to a few people, so they banned it for the well-being of us peons who are obviously incapable of assuming any risks for ourselves. So now that hitch-hiking is illegal, guess who today's hitch-hikers are more likely to be? (Hint: not lovable hippies trying to make their way across our great country.)
This^ is a good logical analysis, makes sense to me from behavioral economics standpoint.
Have never hitchhiked before, but I did lots of stuff in my younger years that astounds me now.
Am grateful to have made it out of my teens alive, and to have learned better how to stay safe-
though carefulness applied too broadly can lead to an excess of isolation, too.
I managed to do a lot sheerly out of ignorance, which I can look back on with hindsight and be glad for having done-
'cause I sure don't have the courage & lack of caution to go do such things again.
Isn't it crazy how unaware of danger you can be as a teen?
As a late teen I picked up two guy hitchhikers cuz it was the late 60's and I was in some kind of dreamworld . . .I got an icky feeling and realized I could have been murdered.
Then when a couple of my children were toddlers, my car broke down and I accepted a ride with a weirdo couple. I was extremely naive and idealistic.
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