Do you pick up hitchhikers?

Van Hellseek said:
Love how you make helping another person about your own ego.

Is it not possible to do it because, well, they need help?
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Well you'd be the first person i've ever met in life who TRULY did something to be completely selfless, and not because it made them feel better about themselves, whether they like to admit it or not.
 
Van Hellseek said:
You haven't spent much time in Asia have you?
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No, funnily enough, not living in Asia means I don't tend to spend a particularly large portion of my time there.

edit - and if you're going to sit there and tell me everyone in Asia is wonderful and selfless and always do things for others with absolutely no personal gratification, i'm going to tell you that I think you're incredibly naive.
 
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I havnt picked up any hitchhikers in my years driving, but thats not to say i wouldnt, i've never been in a position to do it, whenever i see them i'm either fully loaded with kit or just going a short distance.
 
Moses said:
It's literally ridiculous to try and pooh pooh good deeds by wheeling out the ~there's no true altruism~ line :\.
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What's 'literally ridiculous' is taking my post about risk assessment being a choice balancing the potential positives and negatives of an action and trying to take the thread on a tangent about whether people do selfless things or not because I made a glib comment on the positives that arise from giving a stranger a lift, when it's largely completely irrelevant to the original point. In fact, at no point am I trying to 'pooh pooh good deeds' at all.

Or we can start talking about jumping on grenades in a thread about hitchhiking.
 
Kenai said:
And he probably perceives that risk to be balanced by his need to walk down the high street for a particular reason, such as going to a shop, or meeting his friends, whereas as he doesn't perceive the risk of letting a random person in his car to be balanced by the ... well, there is nothing to balance it really, maybe a sense of self satisfaction due how wonderful you are.

It's all a risk assessment - you balance the potential negatives with the positives that result from the action. I struggle to think of any real positives that result from taking a risk with a hitch hiker, who knows, maybe you'll meet the love of your life?
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Yes, nail hit on the head.
 
Not as a normal rule, but did stop once and give one of those 'car delivery drivers' (those with the special number plates) a lift when i was moving back from a posting in Corsham to Plymouth. He was going to Exeter, the weather was proper pump and as I was passing I thought, 'Why the hell not'

Nice bloke. He even traipsed around in Ikea after me as I had to call in and pick some bits up for Mrs S.

Wouldn't pick up any old hitcher though
 
To risky.. Unless they are hot.. Not to hot to be a trap mind you.

Alas. There are not many hot hitch hikers.
No way would I pick up a group!
 
there are plenty of risks... yes the chance of murder is rather rare, chance of assault or robbery is probably less rare - the chance that you'll end up with someone you've got nothing in common with is reasonably likely.

chance that they smell? chance they have bad chat, bad breath and pick their nose in your car? chance that they nick something? chance that they leave a stain on your seats?

don't see many benefits in general
 
Considering you can book coaches for just a couple of quid, such as Megabus, that will get you around the country I don't see the need for people to hitch-hike in the UK.
 
Flare said:
I'd put money on it that there is more chance of you getting hit by a car than getting killed by a hitch hiker in your own car.
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It's not much of a wager, if he doesn't stop to pick people up then there's almost no opportunity for a hitcher to murder him in his own car... :p

More seriously it's a statement that doesn't tell you much, of course you're more likely to get hit by a car because there's millions of cars on the road and comparatively few hitchhikers to murder you if/when you pick them up. Going to locations where you might get hit by a car is also pretty well unavoidable unless you live as a shut-in, picking up hitchhikers is almost always entirely avoidable. So while I'd agree the danger is very small it's not necessarily something that you can rationalise to people and it's not an entirely fair comparison to use.
 
Not a chance!!

These blokes that hold trade plates are always standing in stupid places too, where they have no chance of getting picked up safely, eg motorway slip road.
 
I always imagine the worst when I see hitchhickers - ie it's a trap to get you robbed / carjacked. But I also think what happens if it's not and they are geniunely nice people. You stop and pick them up, drop them at the next town then 2 days later you get a loud knock on your door. The hitch hiker has turned up dead, CCTV shows them getting into your car and you were the last person the police can prove had contact with them.

That's a whole world of pain I'd rather not go through.
 
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