Hitch Hikers

>does any one stop these days to give hitch hickers a lift

Only if they are blonde, of swedish heritage and of the other sex :)

In all seriousness, I have on one or two occasions, they have generally been stranded motorists in fairly remote places. In all honesty, I have not seen that many around. But then again Im probably too busy looking at the gps, talking on the phone, checking out the weather on my wireless broadband and reading the subtitles on the foreign film playing on the incar dvd to notice them...

have a good xmas and new year

Kev, the short answer is no. I've hitch hiked all over NSW and Qld as a kid, and thank goodness never come across any nastyness (but did come across a few...undesireables...but I could run quickly in those days)
So I picked up quite a few people in my time. But times have changed. I found that picking up blonde sveedish young ladies became too much of a hassle. People aren't backward at coming forward these days. They end up wanting you to go a long way out of your way.
The media have edumacated both the driver and the hitch hiker as to what could happen.
I'll stop for a stranded motorist, especially if they have family there. But...
Basically its too risky these days.

One word springs to mind on this subject 'Belangalo'



Floody

I do and don't - it depends entirely where I am, if a fellow motorist looks stranded I'll stop cautiously to offer help, but for those wandering alongside the road in mid summer wearing dark clothing and having a beanie on there heads in 36 degree heat no I don't stop. The reason being of course that those afflicted by drugs wear beanies to keep their heads warm as the drugs screw up their circulation....yes a sweeping generalisation but safe choice...

Being in the north west of wa we would always stop only got caught twice one was a couple with car but when we stopped about 6 came out of bush we left them all .
The second time picked a guy up just past a servo on the highway within a few moments a lot of bikers were playing chicken i asked the wife to load the 22 went on for quite a lot of ks pulled into the next servo he got out and went over to the bikers we fueled up and shot down some back station roads home

Kev
Many reasons why I don't

1 could get your throat slit
2 They reek with BO
3 Dusty has the seat
4 they'll bite you for a feed
5 Pinch your wallet while your in the Loo

Generally NO.
It's impossible to make a split second assessment of the character, intention(s), motivation, desire(s), etc of a complete stranger - in less than 15 seconds. Sadly, failing to 'assess' who you let into your vehicle and getting it right has the potential to end 'in disaster'. Your vehicle, your life, your family, your choice.

Interesting post. I hitch hiked every where as a kid, nearly every night over to my girl friends house who lived about 20k away then home again in the morning to start work at 7.30am. Young love\lust. Never had any problems getting a lift in those days late 60s early 70s, met lots of interesting ppl and no unpleasant incidents. Rarely pick ppl up these days unless obviously in trouble or women to save them from trouble. Had a very interesting encounter on the CREB Track over 25 years ago. We were headed to Cooktown after work on a Satuday afternoon. We had crossed the Daintree and climbed the first hill and just after the top gate found a feral hippy looking dude sitting on a stump with a 303 rifle across his lap and his thumb out hitching. I looked at my wife and said what do you recon? We figured if we didn't pick him up he might decide to shoot at the car. So I very casually pulled up beside him and said "g'day mate how ya goin" He said "good, do you reckon you could give us a lift to Bloomfield." "No worries hop in." I had a MQ SWB Nissan Patrol back then so it must have been about 1981\2. We chatted away with him trying to keep things light and simple, he didn't talk much but he told us he was going to Bloomfield to sort out a problem with someone. We heaved a huge sigh of relief when we let him out of the car at Bloomfield. I spoke to the police when we got to Cooktown that evening and from the description I gave them they said he was a well known bad dude from the area but we had probably done the right thing picking him up as who knows how he would have reacted if we had just driven past. Cheers Rob

Maybe technically not a hitch hiker, but many years ago we accepted a lift to a young, blond, attractive English lass.

We were in Flinders Chase National Park at the time and this lass had a practice of camping close by to a family for safety and we got talking to her and she was looking for a lift back to the ferry at the other end of the Island.

She was a delightful girl who was a nurse on a working holiday around Australia and very attractive too.

My wife could observe my eyes hanging out of their sockets as our passenger was wearing perhaps three articles of clothing.
A tee shirt and shorts and I would guess a pair of briefs, but on that I couldn't be sure.

My vehicle at the time was a Toyota Camper Van and we were three across the front.

I was bleep tered when my wife took the middle seat:-(
The roads those days were not sealed and I picked every bump, rock and pothole I could find to observe "nature at work" out of the corner of my eyes, which had some trouble watching where I was going for some reason or other.

In all seriousness though, it was she who was risking her safety in this circumstance. I guess her method of meeting people in camping grounds and assessing their character worked OK for her.

Like others these days, I would assist a traveller in need of genuine help, but I do also keep some form of protection next to me and I don't mean a condom either.

Usually it is a long bladed hunting or fishing knife.