Hitchhiking

[Max Rockatansky]

To my knowledge we don't have a hitchhiking thread.  It does get brought up now and then in other threads.

hobby

Would you please shut tf up about passenger rail being a "hobby"?  You keep saying that.  I've taken Amtrak at least a dozen times, and not a single one of those times was as a "hobby".  I had somewhere to get to, and Amtrak was transportation to get me there.  Preferring rail travel over other modes of transportation doesn't make it a hobby any more than preferring air travel over other modes makes that a hobby.

Wait, I take that one statement back.  There was a single trip that was just for fun.  I took Amtrak from Naperville to Macomb just so that I could hitchhike back to Chicago for fun.  Technically, the hitchhiking part was the "hobby", but let's roll with it.  I only ended up hitchhiking to Galesburg, and then I took Amtrak back to Naperville from there.  So there you go.  One trip that was just for a "hobby".  All others were legit transportation choices because Amtrak was (a) more convenient, (b) less expensive, or (c) both.

Me personally I only ever hitchhiked when I was in high school.  I didn't really have much choice given my car broke down on US 27 and I had to get back north out of downtown Lansing. 

[kphoger]

The first time I ever hitched a ride was when my dad and I were in the Copper Canyon region of southern Chihuahua in December 2001.  We hiked a couple of miles from Batopilas to Satevó, and my dad developed a blister on one of his feet.  This was during the afternoon of New Year's Eve.  We flagged down a passing pickup, asked for a ride, and climbed in the back with a bunch of other guys on their way to the New Year's celebration later in the day.

The first time I planned to hitchhike long distance was plan B after a failed attempt at hopping freight from Chicago to Missouri.  I had met my now-wife online, and I think this was my second or third trip down to meet her.  I had hoped to hop a train to Saint Louis and then find one heading from there through Springfield.  Looking back, even if I had successfully hopped out of Chicago, I would have gotten either stuck or arrested in Saint Louis, so it worked out for the best.  I hitched down I-355 with a sign that said "I-55 / Will pay tolls".  My ride only took me as far as Boughton Road but, just in that short time, he confessed to me that he was cheating on his wife.  It's weird how total strangers will open up more than close friends do.  I walked four miles in the drizzling rain from there to the I-55/IL-53 junction.  I went to the break room area of the truck stop nearby and asked around, but no truckers were going my way.  I stood under an umbrella at the on-ramp, got no ride after 20 or 30 minutes, and decided to just give up.  I took Pace bus from there to Joliet and booked Greyhound instead.

Besides my trip that the OP quotes, I've had at least three successful long-distance hitchhiking trips.

1.

I had a long week-end one time, so I took Greyhound from Cumberland Avenue station up to Menominee MI, getting in late at night.  My original plan was to pitch a tent in John Henes Park and hope I didn't get busted by the police for it.  But the ground was already soaked with dew, so I decided to sleep under a picnic table pavilion instead.  But there were bugs on the ground that I didn't recognize, so I ended up just sitting at the table and trying to sleep like that.  I got almost no sleep.  First thing in the morning, I headed to the edge of town and started flying a sign that said "St Ignace".  Quickly got a ride from a young guy—a college student who was thinking of trying to combine auomotive repair and Christian outreach ministry into one—who was ultimately headed up M-35 north of Gladstone, so he dropped me off US-41/M-35 junction in Gladstone.  From Gladstone, I quickly got a ride from a bird-watching enthusiast for a few miles up to the US-2/US-41 junction in Rapid River.

The highway was under construction, so I was flying my sign between big orange barrels.  Quickly got a ride from a lady heading down into the Lower Peninsula.  She had business to do in Manistique along the way, so I had her drop me off at Lakeview Park.  I went for a skinny-dip in Lake Michigan while I was waiting for her;  even in July, the water was cold enough that I started getting leg cramps.  From there, we headed to Saint Ignace, where she had some more quick business to attend to, then we picked up lunch to go, and headed across the bridge into the Lower Peninsula.  My original plan had been to hug Lake Huron, but I decided to stay with my ride as far as she'd take me—and she was not going the Lake Huron direction.  She dropped me off at the US-127/M-55 junction near Houghton Lake, and I took a short nap on the concrete outside the Houghton Lake Church of God.

Refreshed after waking up, I flew a "Lake City" sign and decided to try and work my way from there to US-131.  It wasn't long before I was picked up by a couple headed all the way down to Paw Paw.  They had three puppies in the back seat with me, and they weren't potty trained.  The a/c didn't work, so we drove with all the windows down.  They made a stop at a store somewhere in either Lake City or Cadillac, then at a head shop in Grand Rapids, along the way to Paw Paw.  They said they thought their uncle or someone would offer me a bed to sleep on that night, so I rode all around Paw Paw with them.  This included a tour of the town (where the guy told me about how, when he was younger, he used to break into police cars and rip up all the ticket books), seeing someone about the puppies, two times to a friend's house to get smoked up, one trip to Wal-Mart to satisfy their subsequent munchies—all to find out I couldn't stay the night at whoever's house after all.  Instead, they showed me where I could pitch my tent without worry of being seen:  behind a shed and a boxcar along a now-defunct railroad not far from the Interstate junction.  So I pitched my tent, got a great night's sleep, and woke up covered in dew because I hadn't wanted to waste time with the rain fly.

Next morning, I walked over to the gas station, freshened up in the bathroom sink, and headed out to the I-94 on-ramp.  It wasn't too long before a Southern Baptist pastor picked me up in his orange Wrangler.  He had seen me, kept driving, turned around at the next exit, and came back again to pick me up.  He took me to the truck stop in Benton Harbor (Napier Avenue) and bought me breakfast at whatever fast food restaurant was there at the time.  This time I had to wait 1½ hours for a ride, standing in the hot sun.  Eventually, and middle-aged fisherman picked me up in his pickup and took me to... umm... some Metra station along the BNSF line, but I don't remember which one anymore.  I missed my train because one of his fishing lures got stuck to my backpack, so I had to wait another couple of hours for the next train.

2.

Carrie and I had been living in the Chicago suburbs when we got married, but we were moving to southern Illinois, and our wedding was in Branson, and our honeymoon had us flying out of Kansas City—so the logistics of that were interesting.  We started renting our new house ahead of time and moved all our stuff into it two weeks before the wedding.  Then, from southern Illinois, Carrie headed to Branson to get things ready for the wedding, while I headed back to the Chicago area to keep working for another week and a half.  I lived out of a backpack during that time, then cashed out my bank account after my last day of work, and left to hitchhike back downstate again.  My plan was to take Pace bus down and then find a place to sleep near the I-57/US-30 interchange in Matteson.  I had made a big hitchhiking sign with a huge red thumb on it, an I-57 shield, and the words "Getting married", and that was folded up and sticking out of my backpack.

While I was waiting to transfer buses at Harvey, a young guy asked to borrow my cell phone to let his girlfriend know he was running late.  Like a total idiot, I said yes.  He walked away with my phone.  Then he and his buddies kept passing it back and forth until I had no idea who had it anymore.  Eventually, one of them said to give my phone back, but they only agreed to do so if I gave them $20.  Desperate at that point, I agreed and pulled out my envelope of cash.  They noticed I had a bunch of money in there, and got all excited.  I decided to enlist a snack shop guy to facilitate the exchange, even though he wanted nothing to do with it.  He agreed, though, and then promptly closed the window.  Then another friend walked up, and got REALLY excited to learn that I had a bunch of cash on me.  This was one firecracker of a punk kid, and the shit was about to hit the fan.  I was about to get jumped, right there on the bus transfer platform.  At last, right then, my bus pulled up, I got on, and that punk followed me on too.  I explained the whole situation to the bus driver, she kicked him off the bus, and away we went.

After that experience, I didn't really feel like sleeping 'on the street' that night, so I asked around on the bus if anyone might offer a place to stay.  Everyone stared at their feet.  After I got off the bus, though, a man said I could sleep on the floor of their front room as long as his wife was OK with it.  So, after he spent some time getting smoked up at his friends' house on the way, we headed to his house.  It's a good thing I had a roof over my head that night, because a big old thunderstorm came through, and I'd probably have gotten soaked wherever I was.  Next morning, I took another Pace bus to the highway junction and started hitching.

My first ride was a guy in a work van, and he took me to the Peotone exit.  There was already a hitchhiker there, and I didn't know what to do in that situation, so I asked him.  He told me that the custom is for the latecomer to take a spot farther down the on-ramp, to give the first guy the first chance at any approaching cars.  So that's what I did.  He was dressed all in black, with no sign, sitting on his big black duffel.  I was dressed decently, with a sharp-looking sign, standing up and smiling.  A lady passed slowly by him, then stopped to pick me up instead.  The other guy was glaring at me with his hands on his hips.  I told the driver that he had gotten there first, but she told me she didn't want to pick him up.  So I shouted out, "I tried!" and got in.  She had me call my fiancée on my cell phone so she could confirm my story that we were about to get married.

She was heading to Champaign–Urbana, and I wasn't aware of any good hitchhiking spots there, so I had her drop me off at the rest area near Loda.  From there, I got a ride from an older guy in an older pickup truck.  He had to stop partway to change the fuel pump—which he already had with him.  He took me to the Johnston City exit, where my wife and sister-in-law met me.

3.

There was some other time when I hitchhiked from Mount Vernon up to Chicago.  I don't remember the details, but it might have been after we moved all our stuff down to our new house before getting married.  Anyway, I flew a "I-57 / Chicago" sign and got a ride in a conversion van with falling-over seat to Tuscola.  I waited more than an hour at that on-ramp, decided to chance it by heading up to the I-57 mainline itself, gave up shortly, and started heading back down the on-ramp.  Just then, I guy from Indiana pulled over on the shoulder and started reversing down the on-ramp toward me.  I got in, and he took me the rest of the way to the Chicago area.  He dropped me off at the Hazel Crest station in the south suburbs.  After taking a dump caveman-style behind a shed that's no longer there, I headed up to the platform and took transit back home from there.  One thing I remember about him is that his goal was to make it from Kentucky to Indiana without filling up, just to avoid the higher gas prices in Illinois.


I also hitchhiked countless times between near home in Wheaton and College of DuPage.  Once was even with my daughter and her car seat.  If it was after dark, I'd prop a flashlight on the ground to shine at me.

I've been hassled by the Wheaton police while hitchhiking on Roosevelt Road, the officer told me it was illegal, and told me to keep walking.  I walked just past the city limit and continued hitchhiking.  Later, I wrote an e-mail to the chief of police and asked which law I was breaking, because I couldn't find any in the city code, and I quoted the state vehicle code.  I got an apology from the deputy.

I've been hassled by College of DuPage campus security.  I was even a student at the time, although I was actually just hitchhiking to go see a movie with my then-fiancée-now-wife in Warrenville.  They searched my backpack and told me to leave campus.  When they were done, a lady who had been standing by watching the whole thing came over and offered me a ride to the movie theater.  A few days later, I went to the campus security office and asked what rule I was breaking.  They told me to talk to some other department, so I did, and they said they'd been getting a lot of complaints lately about heavy-handed campus security.  We then actually started exchanging e-mails about the possibility of starting a 'hitching post' somewhere on campus where students could ask for rides.  It never ended up going anywhere, though.

I was once walking after dark in a snowstorm through residential streets of Wheaton, headed to the College Avenue station to catch Metra for a concert band rehearsal at Concordia University in River Forest.  The weather was awful, so I just stuck my thumb out as I walked.  A guy stopped and took me all the way to Stone Park or something, where I was able to catch a Pace bus along North Avenue to near my destination.

I was once half-stranded in New Lenox because I had gotten a date wrong and didn't have anyone there to meet me, so I decided to hitchhike to Joliet and figure out my way home from there.  Hitching west at the intersection of US-30 and Cedar Road with a "Joliet" sign, I got a ride from a guy in his work van who ended up taking me all the way to Warrenville after three customer stops because that's where his route took him.

And then there was the time I hitchhiked after dark from the Harlem Avenue blue line L station.  A Hispanic guy stopped in a pickup truck, I climbed in the back and lay down, then knocked on the window when we got to Augusta Street.  He stopped, and I jumped out.  We never spoke a word.

I once hitchhiked from Herrin IL to Paducah KY.  My first ride was in a gravel truck who took IL-148 in order to avoid the weigh scales.  I went to Paducah to go nude sailing with him out on Kentucky Lake.

Then there were the times that I got off work early, but my wife didn't.  We were living in Herrin IL, and she was working in downtown Benton.  So, without telling her, I'd hitchhike to Benton, and then I'd just be sitting there waiting in the parking lot by our car when she came out from work.  Did that a couple of times.

Once, hitchhiking home from work in Herrin, an Illinois Secretary of State police officer stopped and tried telling me that what I was doing was illegal.  Then he offered to give me a ride home.  Then he realized he'd locked his keys in the cop car, so he had to call his brother to come out with a spare key.

I'm probably forgetting some stories...

[Rothman]

I don't think I've ever hitchhiked, but I certainly enjoyed picking up hitchhikers.  Kind of sad the tradition has basically gone away.

[kphoger]

Kind of sad the tradition has basically gone away.

I think the last time I personally thumbed a ride was in 2007.

[kphoger]

Before joining this forum, I used to be a member of a hitchhiking forum.  It no longer exists because it started costing more money to run than the webmaster could afford without charging users, and—believe it or not!—among a group of people whose one thing in common is getting stuff for free, not enough people were willing to pay for the thing to keep it going.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080709041844/http://www.digihitch.com/

[kphoger]

Hey, I hunted down my old account on the hitchhiking forum via the Wayback Machine, and I was able to find my account of the trip quoted in the OP:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111101142734/http://www.digihitch.com/article539.html

Here's the account of the one from Mount Vernon to Chicago, which was earlier than I thought:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111101170251/http://digihitch.com/usa383.html

Unfortunately, it appears that the Wayback Machine never archived my more detailed account of the Michigan trip.

[Roadgeekteen]

I have too much social anxiety to hitchhike. Plus it's kind of out of style now.

[kphoger]

I have too much social anxiety to hitchhike.

Yeah, it's not for someone who isn't comfortable in all sorts of social situations.

Plus it's kind of out of style now.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, though.  It hasn't been 'in style' since the 70s.

[Roadgeekteen]

I have too much social anxiety to hitchhike.

Yeah, it's not for someone who isn't comfortable in all sorts of social situations.

Plus it's kind of out of style now.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, though.  It hasn't been 'in style' since the 70s.

I feel like uber was the nail in the coffin though. Now there's almost no times when it's absolutely necessary. It used to be you needed it at times if you wanted to get somewhere and you don't have a car and greyhound/amtrak doesn't serve it.

[kphoger]

I feel like uber was the nail in the coffin though. Now there's almost no times when it's absolutely necessary. It used to be you needed it at times if you wanted to get somewhere and you don't have a car and greyhound/amtrak doesn't serve it.

wut

You do realize that taxis existed before Uber, right?  Need a ride somewhere, willing to pay, call a taxi.

But also, Greyhound/Amtrak trips and Uber trips are not at all the same thing.  Like back when I was about to get married, I had to get from Chicago to southern Illinois.  From Matteson to Johnston City, it was a 282-mile day of hitchhiking for me.  Ain't no way I'd be taking an Uber for that kind of distance.

No, hitchhiking is typically a poor man's means of transportation because he can't afford something else.  Yes, I used to do it for fun sometimes, but I'm weird, and most of the times it was because I couldn't really afford anything else.  Like, again, back when I was about to get married:  yes, I had a big wad of cash on me during that trip, but that's the money we'd be using for our honeymoon and getting our new home ready, and neither of us even had a job lined up yet.  I hitchhiked down there not just because I enjoyed hitchhiking, but also because I couldn't really afford to splurge on a Greyhound or Amtrak ticket.

[pderocco]

I feel like uber was the nail in the coffin though. Now there's almost no times when it's absolutely necessary. It used to be you needed it at times if you wanted to get somewhere and you don't have a car and greyhound/amtrak doesn't serve it.

wut

You do realize that taxis existed before Uber, right?  Need a ride somewhere, willing to pay, call a taxi.

But also, Greyhound/Amtrak trips and Uber trips are not at all the same thing.  Like back when I was about to get married, I had to get from Chicago to southern Illinois.  From Matteson to Johnston City, it was a 282-mile day of hitchhiking for me.  Ain't no way I'd be taking an Uber for that kind of distance.

No, hitchhiking is typically a poor man's means of transportation because he can't afford something else.  Yes, I used to do it for fun sometimes, but I'm weird, and most of the times it was because I couldn't really afford anything else.  Like, again, back when I was about to get married:  yes, I had a big wad of cash on me during that trip, but that's the money we'd be using for our honeymoon and getting our new home ready, and neither of us even had a job lined up yet.  I hitchhiked down there not just because I enjoyed hitchhiking, but also because I couldn't really afford to splurge on a Greyhound or Amtrak ticket.

Does your wife refer to you has "my hobo"?

[Scott5114]

Plus it's kind of out of style now.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, though.  It hasn't been 'in style' since the 70s.

These days I would imagine you'd probably have to wait much longer than you would have before. People are a lot less trusting of random strangers than they used to be. (Which is kind of funny, because in the past you used to be able to just move to a different city and give a fake name and become enough of a new person that it'd even throw the cops off if you were careful enough. Nowadays you can't rent an apartment without someone pulling your credit history and leaving a paper trail. Even a hotel wants a state ID.)

[kphoger]

I can probably list every spot I've hitchhiked from.  This would be from 2004 through 2007.

Roughly south to north...
IL-148 @ SB I-57, south of Marion, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/hNznVAQHfkzL9YZW6
along EB Herrin Rd, between Herrin and Colp, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/s7FtCUgayUjoDZvX8
along EB Herrin Rd @ Bandyville Rd, Herrin, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/CyhQgmai13nWKN24A
Herrin Rd @ SB I-57, Johnston City, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/M9azn1v9iAivCauG9
Herrin Rd @ NB I-57, Johnston City, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/vubhio8TxvcxksmHA
IL-15 @ NB/WB I-57/I-64, Mount Vernon, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/CsVFNb6EBN9gBEn36
US-36 @ NB I-57, Tuscola, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/GdAtRRCYz1a921VG6
rest area @ SB I-57, north of Loda, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/n9qPAfFmDXAmxn4p9
along NB US-67, north side of Macomb, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/r3c4x8k87sJKdkYJA
(gave up) Seminary St @ EB US-34, Galesburg, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/eR2cQ64uhLQNtv9S9
Monee–Manhattan Rd @ SB I-57, Monee, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/dtpFNUas9bEwMXKY7
US-30 @ SB I-57, Matteson, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/cQ2wxidb1Dxtbo4w9
along WB US-30 @ Cedar Rd, New Lenox, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/R4csdF98bUtorJcn9
(gave up) IL-53 @ SB I-55, Bolingbrook, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/2j7gVv2MqT5Tvvjk8
IL-38 @ SB I-355, Lombard, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/paGnhtugdNqYgbYL9
in front of College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/uXuisFHbERpSEU167
along SB Lorraine Rd @ Taft Ave, Wheaton, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/r4UH4Bm2Sw8Ff5e69
somewhere along NB Blanchard Rd, Wheaton, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/dx2Munmk24R3PjFz6
(told to move by police) somewhere along WB IL-38, Wheaton, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/8Du6xoLbX3aJUBW48
along WB IL-38 between Wheaton and Winfield, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/zxTss4A7yodpb6NP9
along NB IL-43 @ CTA blue line, Oak Park, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cm7qHP1Li9hZZko1A
in front of Judson College, Elgin, IL:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/RCTzAqMe1mmrEaKBA (no GSV)
Napier Ave @ WB I-94, southeast of Benton Harbor, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/RqahKVhe5TY1Aex47
M-40 @ WB I-94, Paw Paw, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jw3zMTwH9Xb4HeH89
along WB M-55, just west of US-127 near Houghton Lake, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/AoK3pH9gs6WvjYa37
along EB US-2 @ US-41, Rapid River, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/n43mXsKwnNAQ4xuP6
along EB/NB US-2/US-41 @ M-35, Gladstone, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/pf1KwBapB4VZbeQZ9
along NB M-35, just north of Menominee, MI:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/T4Ce317KendeYLns7

Well, those are the ones I can think of, anyway.

[interstatefan990]

Had a friend back in the day who told me this hitchhiking safety test:

-Ask if the person is willing to drive you to a nearby destination.

If they say yes:

-Ask them if they are also willing to drive you to a "final" destination considerably farther away.

If they say yes to this as well, they may not be planning to take you where you're going. Find another driver.

[pderocco]

I think it isn't just people who hitchhike. This package I ordered looked like it thumbed from Quebec to Illinois, and then said "screw it" and booked a flight.

[oscar]

The only times I've thumbed a ride were in two remote villages in Alaska. The more amusing instance was in Cordova, when I overextended myself walking to the ferry terminal, then had to hotfoot it back to town to catch an excursion to the historic Million Dollar Bridge about 50 miles east of town (now inaccessible due to costly major washouts, which the state DOT has left unrepaired). The town mayor gave me the ride, and saved me a lot of time. Of course, he used up most of the time I saved with an impromptu tourism survey. That underscored one reason why Cordova residents so fervently resist any attempt to build a road connecting the town to the rest of the Alaska highway network -- you feel safer hitching a ride when it's hard for an axe murderer to suddenly leave town without being caught at the harbor or the airport.

On Hawaii's Big Island, I gave a ride to two cute local girls heading to the beach. That worked out OK, but could've gone sideways in a hurry had I been less lucky.

[vtk]

I feel like I'm the kind of person who would offer a ride to a hitchhiker, but I never see anyone thumbing

[hotdogPi]

I've never seen a thumb, but I did see a few years before the pandemic someone holding a cardboard sign saying "I-95 NORTH" here.

[CtrlAltDel]

I feel like I'm the kind of person who would offer a ride to a hitchhiker, but I never see anyone thumbing

I have never hitchhiked and have never picked up a hitchhiker, and I am absolutely bewildered that anyone would do either. This thread is a look into an interesting world for me.

[kphoger]

Had a friend back in the day who told me this hitchhiking safety test:

-Ask if the person is willing to drive you to a nearby destination.

If they say yes:

-Ask them if they are also willing to drive you to a "final" destination considerably farther away.

If they say yes to this as well, they may not be planning to take you where you're going. Find another driver.

Hitchhiking tips from me

Picking up hitchhikers:

1.  Don't pick up anyone who doesn't have a bag, unless you can immediately tell they're in some sort of desperate situation (their car is on the side of the road with its hood up, they're carrying a gas can, that kind of thing).  If they don't have a bag, then they're most likely half-drunk and looking for a ride to the liquor store to finish the job.  Or maybe a serial killer, but probably just a drunk. 

2.  As soon as you roll down the window, ask him where he's headed.  He should have an answer.  Maybe it's a close destination, maybe it's far away, but he should have an answer ready to go when you ask.  If it's far away (like the guy I picked up in Wichita with a 'Seattle' sign once), then you might even get to use your roadgeek skills to help him figure out how to get there from here.

3.  Unless it's necessary for space constraints, let him keep his bag in the passenger compartment, not in the trunk or whatever.  This relieves any fear that a hitchhiker may feel that you'll just boot him out of the car and drive off with all his stuff.

4.  Let him out where it's safe to do so, which might mean finding an exit or a parking lot or something like that.  If he's continuing on and doesn't know exactly where to hitch his next ride from, then the best bet is at an intersection or interchange that's near a big gas station or truck stop—just not a free-flowing interchange like a cloverleaf or something.  Diamond and other simple interchanges are your best bet, because all traffic coming by on the on-ramp will be going fairly slowly, and there's probably even a wide spot to pull over.

Hitchhiking:

1.  Carry a backpack or other bag.  This is the flipside of the other #1 up above.  Without a bag, you look like a drunk, a drifter, or a deranged psycho killer.  Even if you're only hitching ten miles to your cousin's house, stick a jacket in a backpack first.

2.  Stand up, smile, and hold your sign or your thumb out for people to see.  Look like the kind of person who's happy to be traveling and the kind of person someone else might actually want in their car for a while.  Don't look like a dirty, grumpy, lazy bum.

3.  If possible, wear halfway decent-looking clothes.  Just something as simple as a collared shirt instead of a tee-shirt communicates a lot to total strangers who are hesitant about trusting you.

4.  Try to obey the law if possible, which depends on which state you're in.  Typically, this means stand off the pavement, or at least on the shoulder, and don't pass the 'no pedestrians' sign posted at on-ramps.  Sometimes that isn't possible or practicable, but do your best.

5.  Use a sign if you can.  This clearly communicates that you have an actual destination.  White cardboard or posterboard is better than brown.  Use a real marker that people can actually read instead of scribbling with a ball-point pen.  Choose a destination for your sign that's the next major town with a good spot to hitch from, even if you hope to go farther.  If your ride is going farther, then great.  If not, then at least you'll get to another good spot.  This does mean you need to know ahead of time what towns have good hitchhiking spots (truck stops near diamond interchanges are your friend).  And, when a driver asks where you're headed, your answer should match your sign.  After you've already gotten the ride, you can say your final destination to find out if they might be able to take you farther.

6.  You'll get tired if you have to wait a while.  Holding your thumb out is a good arm workout.  Smiling for a long time makes your face hurt.  Your legs will need a rest.  But tough it out as much as you can.  If you need a rest, try squatting instead of sitting, or sit on your bag if possible.  Do your best to look as inviting as possible, even if you're tired and sore.

7.  If you see any sign at all that a driver is under the influence, then don't get in.  In my opinion, a drunk driver is your #1 risk when hitchhiking.

[interstatefan990]

Had a friend back in the day who told me this hitchhiking safety test:

-Ask if the person is willing to drive you to a nearby destination.

If they say yes:

-Ask them if they are also willing to drive you to a "final" destination considerably farther away.

If they say yes to this as well, they may not be planning to take you where you're going. Find another driver.

Hitchhiking tips from me

Picking up hitchhikers:

1.  Don't pick up anyone who doesn't have a bag, unless you can immediately tell they're in some sort of desperate situation (their car is on the side of the road with its hood up, they're carrying a gas can, that kind of thing).  If they don't have a bag, then they're most likely half-drunk and looking for a ride to the liquor store to finish the job.  Or maybe a serial killer, but probably just a drunk. 

2.  As soon as you roll down the window, ask him where he's headed.  He should have an answer.  Maybe it's a close destination, maybe it's far away, but he should have an answer ready to go when you ask.  If it's far away (like the guy I picked up in Wichita with a 'Seattle' sign once), then you might even get to use your roadgeek skills to help him figure out how to get there from here.

3.  Unless it's necessary for space constraints, let him keep his bag in the passenger compartment, not in the trunk or whatever.  This relieves any fear that a hitchhiker may feel that you'll just boot him out of the car and drive off with all his stuff.

4.  Let him out where it's safe to do so, which might mean finding an exit or a parking lot or something like that.  If he's continuing on and doesn't know exactly where to hitch his next ride from, then the best bet is at an intersection or interchange that's near a big gas station or truck stop—just not a free-flowing interchange like a cloverleaf or something.  Diamond and other simple interchanges are your best bet, because all traffic coming by on the on-ramp will be going fairly slowly, and there's probably even a wide spot to pull over.

5. Don't pick up hitchhikers in a questionable location, such as near a prison, police station, gun shop, known drug dealing or gang territory, near a hotspot of police activity, etc.

Also, is the use of "he" and "his" to say that women don't hitchhike? (Assuming there's no services being offered, if you catch my drift.....)

[Rothman]

I've never found it necessary to follow that many rules when picking up hitchhikers...but it's been a long time since I've seen hitchhikers...

...Come to think of it, Jewish people in NY's Borscht Belt do a decent amount of hitchhiking.  Regret not picking one up when I was down there last a couple of years ago...

[kphoger]

5. Don't pick up hitchhikers in a questionable location, such as near a prison, police station, gun shop, known drug dealing or gang territory, near a hotspot of police activity, etc.

Go ahead and pick up hitchhikers near prisons, no matter what the highway signs tell you.  The chance that the hitchhiker is an escaped convict is very, very low—and they typically don't come equipped with backpacks.  If the dude is dressed in all orange with a serial number on the shirt, has no bags, and has a frantic look in his eyes, then don't pick him up—but if he looks like an actual traveler, then please do so.  My time hiking all the way through Galesburg was due only to the fact that I'd been dropped off at a prison exit and didn't even want to try hitching from there because I figured nobody would stop.  It wasn't my fault that's where I was dropped off, as I didn't even know it was a prison exit till I saw the sign right before the exit.

But yeah, please don't pick people up off the side of the road in the ghetto.  The closest spot to something like that that I've hitched at was Harlem Ave & the blue line L station after dark, but I didn't even really expect a ride (I just figured I'd stick a thumb out while waiting for the CTA bus) and climbed in the bed of the pickup instead of the cab.

Also, is the use of "he" and "his" to say that women don't hitchhike? (Assuming there's no services being offered, if you catch my drift.....)

It was intentional, but only because a hitchhiker is more likely to be a man than a woman.  People of both sexes hitchhike, but there are more men doing it than women.  I try to limit my use of "they" when referring to an individual, even though I know the linguistic practice goes back centuries, so you'll often see me use "he" or "she" even when I clearly mean either sex in the context.

[Henry]

I've heard hitchhiking is discouraged, if not outright illegal, so for this purpose, I've never done it, nor picked up a passenger.

[JayhawkCO]

This is kind of a unique case, but the only times I've personally picked up a "hitchhiker" has been when climbing mountains. Often times there's a parking lot down below for normal cars and then a lot for 4WD vehicles above. Several times I've seen someone hiking up the road between them and asked if they wanted a ride up to the trailhead.