| Hitchhiking Posted by grahame at 05:53, 13th September 2025 |     |
The Observer
Hitchhiking is appealing to a new generation who crave not just a more analogue lifestyle, but real human connection
Some years ago, while driving south from the Scottish Highlands, I saw a woman standing in the rain by a roundabout with her thumb out. She was in her 70s, carrying a big bag, smiling at passing cars. I slammed on the brakes and gave her a ride. She had missed the last bus to Glasgow, she told me, and had been forced to hitchhike instead, a practice not unusual for her. We shared a winding journey together, one I recall being full of laughter and stories, of deep truths that somehow seemed safe to share. I was 21 at the time, a student at St Andrews, nearly finished with an undergraduate dissertation about the philosophy of happiness. (I was, in fact, on my way home from a solo surf trip meant to clear my head.) I remember thinking of the experience as completely improbable. Hitchhiking was something I had seen in films, read about in books. It had only ever been a relic from the past.
I hadn’t thought about this experience until recently, when I noticed that hitchhiking was undergoing a kind of nostalgic resurgence among friends of mine, most of them in their late 20s, as well as in the news and on social media, helped in part by television shows like Race Across the World. The BBC reported recently, “If social media is any indicator, the nearly half a million Instagram posts tagged #hitchhiking suggests the retro travel method is returning.”
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Some years ago, while driving south from the Scottish Highlands, I saw a woman standing in the rain by a roundabout with her thumb out. She was in her 70s, carrying a big bag, smiling at passing cars. I slammed on the brakes and gave her a ride. She had missed the last bus to Glasgow, she told me, and had been forced to hitchhike instead, a practice not unusual for her. We shared a winding journey together, one I recall being full of laughter and stories, of deep truths that somehow seemed safe to share. I was 21 at the time, a student at St Andrews, nearly finished with an undergraduate dissertation about the philosophy of happiness. (I was, in fact, on my way home from a solo surf trip meant to clear my head.) I remember thinking of the experience as completely improbable. Hitchhiking was something I had seen in films, read about in books. It had only ever been a relic from the past.
I hadn’t thought about this experience until recently, when I noticed that hitchhiking was undergoing a kind of nostalgic resurgence among friends of mine, most of them in their late 20s, as well as in the news and on social media, helped in part by television shows like Race Across the World. The BBC reported recently, “If social media is any indicator, the nearly half a million Instagram posts tagged #hitchhiking suggests the retro travel method is returning.”
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Did you ever hitchhike? Do you still do so? Might you do so in the future? Would you accept a lift from a stranger if offered, even if not looking for one?
Have you ever given a lift to someone soliciiting one? To someone who needed one but wasn't asking?
