Hitchhiking and hypocrisy.

There’s something I noticed about this issue and I’ve been wondering what other people may think about it –

People have many different reasons for hitchhiking. Some of the common reasons or arguments are to reduce waste, to reduce carbon emission, to save either money or resources by using what’s already out there, not by freeloading.

Lots of times when I hitchhiked drivers dropped me off somewhere off their route.
This usually has be the case up to a certain extent; the little they should do is stop for you in a petrol station and not leave you in the middle of the highway.
But many times drivers went completely off route for me. Quite a few times I hitched all the way to the doorstep I was heading to, sometimes they would take a certain detour and so on.

When things like that happened I quite often found myself wondering about the following –
I was not using something that already existed. I was not “surfing” the traffic. I was very bluntly adding more to it. I didn’t have to pay for it, but the drivers had to pay for the extra fuel and I felt a bit like a freeloader. Still I never gave up a ride all the way to the doorstep when I was offered one.
I was of course grateful for the drivers and thanked them. They saved me lots of time, hassle, money for public transport in an unknown city or hours of waiting when going to the countryside. Sometimes lots and lots of time, memories of getting stuck were flashing in my head and I was quite happy to avoid it this time.

But something seemed to be a bit wrong.

What are your opinions on this matter?
All of you must have had drivers doing the same.
Did anyone ever have similar thoughts? Did any of you ever give up a ride that was going further than the driver would have gone anyway?

Comments

Wrenaqua's picture

learning exchange

I think that when ur hitchhiking, and the driver is in the mood for a talk, u can learn them so much by telling about hitchhiking, dumpster-diving and living a nomadic life, it gives them another vieuwpoint of life and most of them seem to be way more happy when they dropped me off as when they picked me up, so generally, ur givin the driver a nice, wonderfull inner smile. And second, i get picked up by a lot of ppl who hitchhiked themselves when they we're young, so in this way they can experience the gratitude of helping some1 with something they enjoyed themselves a lot too....

stove's picture

Comparing money, carbon, and...sharing?

I think it is quite difficult to compare some of these things with eachother.

For instance, how do you compare the petrol savings of carpooling with meeting new people, forming relationships, etc.

Or the cost to you of a cup of coffee or tea to stay awake, versus the joy of being conscious to sing along with your drive and an awesome song on the radio?

Many of these things are simply non-comparable on any sort of linear scale. Why should they be? Perhaps, as with many things, they are simply personal matters. It's ok to not be comfortable 100% of the time.

As Viera put to me last summer in L'viv:
Sometimes the act of GIVING is so important to another, that you should not refuse even if you do not want what is offered.

I have this thought every time a driver offers to buy me food/lodging/etc. I don't NEED someone else to pay for me, as many assume I am hitch-hiking because I have no money. However, as I have learned, if it makes someone feel good to give something, who am I to begrude that to them? This is also why I am not always comfortable approaching people to ask for rides.

sarah's picture

Do you necessarily need to talk to share something?

I hope you don't always need to try hard and communicate with people to actually do so.
I hope you might even fall asleep and not being freeloading.
I hope that sincerely sharing a moment with someone might sometimes just be enough.

I tend to believe that if you want to give more than these shared moments, it will be worth doing it only if you honestly feel like doing it rather than because you feel... indebted.

robino's picture

to offer someone to give something is a radical act

I agree with Sarah here. I don't feel bad when I am silent or when I fall asleep. For me freeloading only exists when you take away something from someone without that persons permission. Everything else is through consent.

Obviously there are some border lines (manipulation for example and a non-balance of power) and that is what is being discussed here I guess, as well as in the same topic-discussion started by Stove.

For me nevertheless the answer is very simple. While hitchhiking I offer the person to give something: a ride to a stranger. Just a minute before the driver had no idea s/he had the opportunity to give. But now the driver can. The act of giving is so strong that there is no freeloading involved or having to feel guilty about it. Everyone wants to give and to be of use. That defines for me a human being/ a person. But how many times are you offered an opportunity, a simple opportunity to actually give something useful to someone you didn't know before?

Think also of a birthday and presents. Who is the one who is happier? The person who gives a present or the one who receives the present? Often it is the first.

stove's picture

Clarification-

"For me freeloading only exists when you take away something from someone without that persons permission. Everything else is through consent."

Just wondering, do you mean explicit consent? From a few different definitions, it seems to be "to take advantage of another's generosity".

Is it freeloading if, for example, you have the means to pay for [theoretically carbon-netural etc] transport on your own? Or if you, as we all are, capable of getting yourself there by your own power (bike, walk, skate, skip, swim etc)?

Zuphit's picture

About Stove's post

As far as I'm concerned there's no question about things like dumpster diving (or hitching on-route) - it isn't free loading, you're not taking anything from anyone. It won't work on an infinite scale though, but this is a subject for another topic altogether.
This is the reason cases like the one I brought up here occurred as different to me.

I did meet people who seemed to be doing things like hitchhiking or dumpster diving as part as their freeloading attitude. They'd shoplift if they couldn't dumpster what they wanted when they wanted it. I was not impressed.

heather's picture

I recently had a similar discussion

I recently had a similar discussion with someone. Yes, one reason I hitchhike is for environmental concerns, and if someone takes me off thier route they are using more petrol than they would have had they not picked me up. But I also hitchike for other reasons...
I tend to get picked up a lot by people who have never picked up a hitchhiker before, and who have told me they never would, until they saw me ( usually their reason being because I look young and like their daughter or granddaughter, grrr). But then we have interesting conversations, discussions,food exchanges, radio sing alongs... So I feel like I've done some good, given someone some kindness, allowed my driver to trust hitchhikers and people in general, then maybe the next time they see a hitchhiker they just might pick them up too. It's only after being in their car for a while that they might offer to take me a bit off their route. I always refuse at first, and they always insist.
I dont feel like a freeloader, I'm still mostly just taking up space in a car going my directions anyways, and I always give back to my drivers. If I were to fall asleep, or not try to speak someones language or simply take from them and not give, then yes I would feel like a freeloader, and I wouldn't hitchhike.

gutuAter's picture

Interesting topic. I totally

Interesting topic. I totally agree with Valentina and Jass: when hitching off-route means enhancing trust toward hitchhikers and fellow human beings in general, that can be worth the few miles of co2 emissions that you might be causing. A little step forward for mankind. That definitely makes me feel good and adds to the cosmic feeling of not being alone in this world. Besides, you can't always think in terms of emissions. Even your post contributes to carbon emissions through the energy used to power your laptop, or most of the things that we do anyway. The real question is what this is really worth. Even the purpose of travelling to the Casa may be not good enough to justify all that, from a strictly environmental point of view, of course.

But yes, it happened to me too and didn't make me feel good at all. Because sometimes you can't help it, and you just have to take what you get. Two months ago in Japan I got a 90km ride by a guy that was just driving home in the very same city where I was hitching from. But he told me afterwards, and said that he did that because once he was once hitching himself and nobody would give him a ride. He paid both for gas and highway toll under my very eyes, and logically he did it twice because he had to drive back, too. But what could I do but thank him in the best way I could? The next day my host decided to take me on a trip to a temple, so that she would drop me off further on the way to my next destination. That wasn't necessary, either. But we got the car full and maybe she would have taken that trip anyway, another day, with less people. Who knows. And maybe my trip wasn't necessary, either. The challenge is to find the balance between sticking to your principles and at the same time not being too dogmatic and too strict with yourself, and with your drivers. Life is more complex than calculating carbon emissions.

robino's picture

carbon emissions at the casa

normally I would agree with what you said about carbon emissions: "Besides, you can't always think in terms of emissions. Even your post contributes to carbon emissions through the energy used to power your laptop, or most of the things that we do anyway."

This time though, I am happy I can guarantee you that no emissions were produced while creating this comment (by my knowledge). The server this website runs on is powered on sustainable electricity production, as well as the laptops in the casa (both by hydro-power)

Apart from that we don't know how much carbon has been emitted by producing the powerstation, the laptop, and so on, but the direct emissions are zero.

Zuphit's picture

Another thing

This is just a strange theoretical wondering I've had.

Let's say you have to hitchhike 600km, you're not taking anyone off route, only being dropped off at the appropriate service station. So the only difference it makes in everyone's journey is that brief stopping. Let's say it takes you 7 rides.

Emission-wise, no doubt it's better than driving or flying, but is it really better than using public transport?

valentina's picture

What is freeloading? Is it

What is freeloading? Is it not taking something without giving something back? Taking advantage of others' politeness?

Personally, concerning the little experience I had hitchhiking, I believe that there could be freeloading but it is entirely up to you if preventing it or not.

I will be more clear. If you get into a car, without speaking the language, without bothering to try to communicate and to share something, then yes, you are freeloading to a certain extent.

on the other side, if you open up, sharing something about your life or your travels, you are actually also giving a possibility to the driver: the chance to build a network of trust. The beautiful opportunity to make society working better. Promoting a sharing mentality. Improving karma.

If this is not enough (for me personally it is), then find your own way to not to feel bad about it. Draw something and give it in exchange. Hug the driver at the end of the ride. Print out RandomRoads stories and live them on the seat. Bring some of you in others' people life: I believe this is the best gift you can share: I really appreciaited when you did it for me at Casa :)

Zuphit's picture

The kindness of strangers

I always try to communicate with the driver and have a nice conversation with him/her. Sometimes giving them a little thing as a token of my appreciation (I have a few postcards stashed somewhere in the bag). Quite a few times I was a little bit sad to get off the car because the conversation was flowing and interesting.

But that's not always the case. For example, the time I got to Amsterdam from Berlin - I was in a petrol station in nowhere Germany, several hours drive away from A'dam. No one was going my way and the few people who had dutch license plates gave me nasty looks and expressed their abhorrence towards hitchhikers.
It was getting late when I suddenly found someone going to Rotterdam!
He didn't speak any English and it was quite difficult to express what I wanted but we agreed he'd take me to Utrecht. I tried speaking with him but he had absolutely no English and I was quite tired, I think I slept quite a bit of the way. Then we're past Utrecht and going on direction Amsterdam, instead of Rotterdam. He took out the GPS and told (well gestured mostly) me to enter the address.
I got to the Casa a day earlier than I expected, dropped off on the doorstop (sure, you were all away, partying somewhere on a boat, but I could smell the wifi from the street).
I thanked the driver several times of course, but still, I don't think there was any exchange in this case.

This is the kind of cases that makes me wonder.

Jass's picture

For me, the driver often

For me, the driver often seems to receive a great deal from the act of helping you. I know I would do exactly the same in their position. Beyond environmental concerns; it becomes one of kindness, of breaking away from individualism.
No, I don't feel bad about it all. You just look for moments where you can return the kindness, the compassion, pass it along..heave ho heave ho..