the Dangers of Hitch-Hiking??

[kingdomdayz777]

so i've heard from some friends who have hitch-hiked thousands of miles in the United States; they have said they have had ZERO encounters of dangerous people. no people who wanted to kill them, rape them, hurt them; nothing!!

for some reason i find that hard to believe.. (maybe i'm brainwashed by these horror movies!! hahaha)

like do certain people just get lucky? how common is it for danger to happen with people while hitch-hiking??

[Wedelen64]

I have zero experience in hitchhiking. But I do think I can "read" people and their intentions. Hitchhiking danger is the same as the danger of swimming in the ocean and getting eaten by a shark. There may be one incident in 50 million beach goers but the horror of getting eaten makes people intantly forget that the odds of getting killed in a car accident are so much higher that there is not even a comparison to be made. Would you swim in the ocean with a bunch of bloody fish attached to you? No, that wouldn't make sense. Same with hitchhiking. Are you a petite young blonde with a smoking hot body? If the answer is "yes" then I wouldn't reccomend hitchhiking. It is all about using your brain. If you use the common sense most of us possess and you are not considered "reckless" in your day to day life then I would say the danger is minimum. Life is full of danger, if you are adventureous then the danger is negligible if you use common sense.

[Pelicanpaul]

I hitchhiked a lot when I was in my early teens, sometimes 400 miles at a time. I had one incident where I got in a car with some drunk party animals that took off and where going about 90 mph. Nothing like flying through farmland in Iowa at breakneck speed in a chevy impala with a case of empty pbr in the back seat. I asked to be dropped off about 4 minutes later at the next crossroad, got out of the car and took a deep breath. When I hitchhiked, I mostly ran into people who where just good people trying to help out someone else looking for some conversation. The reason why you probably see less people hitching these days is that you can set up your rides via the internet - so less adventurous and probably MORE dangerous.