Conference terri::cars_uk

    Times have changed.
    
    I would never pick up a hitch hiker these days.
    
    Why risk having a knife at your throat ?
    
    Maybe I'm being a little extreme but you hear about these things.
    
    Royston

Times have changed? I don't think so, but as you get older you worry about such
risks.

I used to hitchhike everywhere. It was a very enjoyable, environmentally
friendly, social means of travel.

I still pick up hitchhikers but only if they pass my split second "visual
inspection".

Dave.

    �Times have changed? I don't think so
    
    You've been living in a cave then Dave. Violence has increased an awful
    lot in the last ten to twenty years.
    
    It was in the news only recently that violence agaist taxi drivers has
    increased in cities. 
    
    Royston

I agree with Dave. <thud>

As long as they look ok in the 10 seconds or so you get to look at them, then 
I'll pick them up.

Envirnomentally unfriendly hitch-hikers seem to be more of a problem than 
violent ones. I only ever had one get violent with me and that was 15 years 
ago.

M.

    I will occasionally pick up a hitchhiker - if all the criteria are
    fulfilled:
    
    1	No other passengers/rubbish in car
    
    2	I can read the sign and it's on my way
    
    3	Single person (poss 2 females if not rough-looking)
    
    4	Not dirty/weird/40-a-day/alsation on a rope etc
    
    5	Dry
    
    6	I can pull over safely and in time
    
    ...etc.  And I'm in the right mood.  Hitching is not a bad thing of
    itself but there's so many pitfalls.  My daughter wouldn't understand
    if I was found with a field tracheotomy....
    
    Richard

re.3:

Violence may have increased generally but have the odds of being attacked by a
hitchhiker increased? What about the other way round? If so, why?

If increasing violence is such a problem, perhaps we should all secure our homes
and stay there, after all, you could get attacked in a pub, restaurant, shop,
office, factory, park, hospital, street, garage, etc...

Dave.

re -1,

So why increase the chance of attack by picking up a complete stranger ?

Remember, looks are only skin deep, and it isn't just the *yobbo* looking
types that may want to injure/kill/assault/ steal from you.  I'm sure
plenty of tyhe hitch hikers are genuine, nice folk, but I'm with Royston,

I may also not have a *Hollywood star* like face, but I quite like it in one 
piece !


Warren

>So what do you think of Hitch Hikers ?

Get your own car!  And a haircut!!  :)

>Do you Pick them up ?  Why not ?

Not a chance... I know first hand of people who've been threatened, or
had their car damaged (back seats slashed, for example)  I wouldn't even
pick up a single hitcher, as one of the more common tricks is for a group
to get the least offensive looking one to flag a vehicle down while
the others are hiding 'round a corner.

Chris.

I never pick up hitch-hikers.

Hitch-hiked once, with a boyfriend of the time - didn't like it.  Wet, cold and
boring.

It is no wonder that we live in such a paranoid world!!

I used to regularly hitch in my "younger" days, especially those 50 miles
between Leeds University and Clitheroe. I never had any problems, because
the sort of people who will pick up hitchhikers are 99.99999% of the time
jolly decent folks (who were probable hitchhikers when they were younger).
They would drive out of their way to get you as close as possible to your
destination, advise on the best "next step", even buy you lunch!!!

It is probably better to thumb "up North", as i find there is a different
mentality in the South, and even here in Brum folks are not quite so
friendly to "transients". Nevertheless, it is the reduction in the number
of people willing to pick you up, rather than the number of homocidal
maniacs, that is the difference.

Peace be with you all,

mb

    I only give lifts to people on local side roads where there is a chance
    that I know them ( I mightn't know the name but the face would be
    familiar ) and if they are young enough to be no threat to me in a
    physical sense. I think it is very sensible to be careful who you pick
    up nowadays with all the violence going around. 
    
    I don't pick up people on long journeys because the risk of getting
    stuck with a malodourous bore is too great. It happened twice and I'm
    never letting it happen again. Two hours of in-depth sports commentary
    from a middle aged man with smelly feet is too much.......
    
    The young moody teenagers are an even greater annoyance because you
    don't know whether they are plotting to attack you or accuse you of
    attacking them at the next town.....
    
    Then there are the little old ladies who complain when you exceed 45mph
    on the open road and give a litany of fatal accidents since 1922 to
    prove their point. Due to the violence mentioned above one doesn't get
    too many of them hitch-hiking nowadays.
    
    THe worst of all are the old drunks who one might pick up out of pity
    only to be regaled with the story of his unjust ejection from a nearby
    hostelry and on how unfair it all was and that the barman was a twit
    and if he was younger he would show him and ....etc. etc...etc....
    
    

    I drive the 50 or so miles from my home in Wales to Bristol and back
    each day and on the way home there are invariably people hitchiking on
    the slipway onto the M5 motorway southbound.
    
    I have quite often thought....hmmmm...should I give one a lift 'cos
    there is always someone going to Wales.
    
    I never have though,even though I hitched once or twice when I was
    young.
    
    I may actually give someone a lift one day but my criteria would be
    avoid more than one male,maybe two females and no dogs (canine).
    
    Steve.

	I have given lifts to hitchikers in the past, but since the publicity
	about women getting attacked on motorways - about 5 years ago - I have
	stopped doing this.

	Heather

    So what is Digitals view on giving HHs a lift in a company car?
    
    Don't?

re.14:

I think that's an insurance issue, where's Mark?

Dave.

You called ?

Digital has no views on hitchhikers as far as I'm aware, other than you can't 
carry them for reward.

Insofar as insurance is concerned it is not possible to deny legal liability 
for third party injury (or usually damage, either). Any nonsense you read or 
hear to the effect that passengers are not covered etc etc etc is just that; 
nonsense.

Virtually any disclaimer you have ever read - We do not accept any 
responsibility etc etc etc is a pile of wotsit.

One of two things can happen though. If the no passengers rule was made by 
your employers, then it is a disciplinary offence for them to deal with as 
they see fit. If it was a rule made by the insurance company, as an 
endorsement to the policy, then, whilst they will still have to pay out for 
any injury claims, they will have the legal right to recover this money from 
you/your company.

    I occasionally pick up hitch-hikers if they are standing by a car with
    its bonnet up. Unfortunatly on one occurence, the chap was a few yards
    on from a car parked on a verge, walking towards a town with an oil can
    in his hand. So I played the good samaritan... it turned out it wasn't
    his car, and the oil can was full of meths (and so was he!).
    
    I said I wasn't going his way at the next junction!
    
    Andy

    
    I occasionally pick up hitch hikers, I'm more likely to stop for single
    persons, especially the type most drivers normally pass by -
    hippy/traveller types who look as though they're on their way from or to
    a festival of some sort.
    
     I gave one guy a lift from Abingdon down to Knutsford a few weeks ago,
    he had some great tapes with him which helped pass the time and was
    very polite and pleasant to talk to. Regarding attacks on drivers etc,
    this particular guy had been attacked a few days earlier by the people
    who stopped to give him a lift. The two people in the car which stopped
    for him had beaten him up and thrown him out of the car in Glasgow,
    luckily the Police spotted the car and caught them later the same day.
    
    Graham.
    
    
    
       

A friend of mine tells a story about when he was at university in Leeds
hitchhiking to Glastonbury festival. It took him three days to get there
by which time it was almost over. During the course of the journey he
was always one step behind a skinhead (peaceful) who, as it turned out
was also attempting to get to the festival, so they teamed up. They got
a lift off some bloke who came out with the immortal line "make yourselves
comfortable, why don't you just slip your trousers off" !!!
       
My friend reckons they got out soon after though I've always wondered :-)

Brendan.

    
    About 15 years ago (15 YEARS!!! My God!), I was hitching with a mate on
    the A505 near Duxford. We had made really good time from Norfolk (and
    hadn't killed anybody 8^), but we hit a "Black Hole" at Duxford. We'd
    waited for a long time, and were mightily PO'd.
    
    Suddenly a Scimitar pulls up, the door opens and a vision of blonde
    loveliness purrs "Are you guys going to the Cambridge Folk Festival?".
    I closed my eyes, and caught my breath. Surely I had died and gone to
    heaven? Then I heard my "mate" saying "Er, no actually, we're not".
    
    The door shuts, and the Scimitar pulls away........
    
    I still sob when I think about it now.
    
    Nigel
    

    That reminds me about the time (only around 5 years ago) that I was
    travelling to the Clonmel plant early one monday morning Rosslaire, by
    motorcycle.
    Now you rarely ever see anyone carrying a crash-helmet thumbing a lift
    from passing bikes.
    Even more rarely in Eire.
    And you *never* see a 'picture of blonde loveliness' in skin-tight
    leathers, carrying a crash helmet, thumbing a lift.
    That morning, I did, she was waiting at the otherside of the only set
    of traffic lights in Wexford.
    Whilst I was waiting for the lights to change, the most 'orrible dirty oily
    hells angel type arrived on the scene from the left, screeched to a
    halt when he saw her, and offered her a lift.
    
    Ah well.
    
    Rob 

    
    Youve all heard of the Axe wielding homicidal maniac ?.
    
    
    Well I got him.
    
    Complete with blood splattered trenchcoat and no shoes or socks.
    Before I knew it he was in the passenger seat cuddling a hammer
    under his coat. He asked me to take him to the nearest police station.
    Which I did, one eye on him one eye on the road, one hand on the wheel 
    and one hand on my door handle. He got out at the police station like
    he said and I never heard another thing about it.
    
    
    Gary

    
    Probably the local Chief Constable! :^)
    
    Mark