The vast majority of states permit it, but have laws prohibiting hitchhikers from standing on the road itself (some permit them to stand on the shoulder, while others are unclear): Meanwhile, a few states have made hitchhiking entirely illegal, while others have banned it on highways. Motorists that previously passed through small towns on state routes now whiz across the country on highways, stopping mostly at exits or rest stops. While hitchhiking isn't explicitly banned on all interstates, laws prohibit pedestrians from walking along side them, so getting a ride is much more difficult. Interstates and police departments discouraged hitchingĭuring this same period, the Interstate Highway System was built, connecting most of America's big cities with much faster roads that became the basis for most long-distance travel. In many developing countries, on the other hand, far fewer people own cars, and hitchhiking is still commonplace. It all adds up to a much smaller percentage of the population needing to hitchhike in the first place. Over the past couple of decades, as cars have lasted longer and gotten cheaper, this trend has extended to lower-income families. Since the 1960s, the percentage of US households that own cars has steadily increased - and the proportion of those with multiple cars has grown even faster: "Probably the most important thing is the huge growth we've seen in car ownership," says David Smith, a British sociologist who's studied hitchhiking trends. Most experts agree that one of the biggest factors in the decline of hitchhiking has nothing to do with fear of crime. Related The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars More people own cars - and fewer need to hitchhike "We lost that somewhere along the way."įor people too young to remember the age of hitchhiking, it brings up a perplexing question: what happened? "Dating back to the Depression and World War II, it used to be very normal to see someone sticking their thumb out and pick them up," says Alan Pisarski, a transportation researcher. Most hitchhikers have no other options, and do so as a last resort. Police departments discourage it, and many states explicitly ban it.
Nowadays, hitchhiking is perceived as dangerous, and few drivers are willing to pick someone up.
But that's not because his trip was at all unusual - it's because the postcards are a remarkably detailed record of a once-routine transportation mode that has essentially vanished.
Years later, the series of postcards he sent to Witter became part of a Smithsonian exhibition on transportation history. Koltnow ultimately got to Yuma in a few days. "Trucks are kindest to me."Ī routine transportation mode essentially vanished "Back to bumpy seats and the open road," he wrote to his girlfriend Dot Witter from Villa Ridge, Missouri. He had no car, so he hitchhiked nearly 2,500 miles, flagging ride after ride from total strangers. In 1950, Pete Koltnow had just graduated college and needed to get from New York to Yuma, Arizona, where he was due to start a new job.