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Hitchhiking When I was in my teensand 20s,hitchhiking was a main form of long-distance transport.The kindness or curiosity of strangersme all over Europe,North America,Asia and southern Africa.Some of the lift-givers became friends,many provided hospitalitythe road. Not only did you find out much more about a country thantraveling by train or plane,but also there was that element of excitement about where you would finish up that night.Hitchhiking featured importantly in Western culture.It has books and songs about it.So what has happened to ? A few years ago,I asked the same question about hitchhiking in a column on a newspaper.of people from all over the world responded with their view on the state of hitchhiking. If there is a hitchhikers it must be lran,came one reply.Rural lreland was recommended as a friendly place for hitchhiking,was Quebec,Canada-if you dont mind being beratedfor not speaking French. But while hitchhiking was clearly still alive and well in many parts of the world,the feeling was that throughout much of the west it was doomed. With so much news about crime in the media,people assumed that anyone on the open road without the money for even a bus ticket must present a danger.But do weto be so wary both to hitchhike and to give a lift? In Poland in the 1910s,a Polish woman who e-mailed me,the authorities introduced the Hitchhikers Booklet.The booklet contained coupons for drivers,so each time a driversomebody,he or she received a coupon.At the end of the season,who had picked up the most hikers were rewarded with various prizes.Everybody was hitchhiking then. | 
