Why we should bring back hitchhiking

Catching a ride makes both economic and social sense

Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
(Image credit: (Barry King/Sygma/Corbis))

When I lived in South Africa from 2009 to 2011, I used to hitchhike everywhere. I lived so far out in the boonies — deep in Northern Cape province, near the Botswana border — that it was about the only way to get to Pretoria in one day. I'd get up at four in the morning, wait on the dirt road beside my village, and catch the first car heading to Vryburg, where I could then take a share taxi or hitch again to go the rest of the way.

It was a huge pain in the neck, requiring 12 hours to travel less than 400 miles. But it was dirt cheap, usually costing about $8. That made hitchhiking, along with the public taxi and bus systems, one of the bedrock elements of South African transportation infrastructure. In a country without much rail, but a good number of cars, it made perfect sense — and I met a lot of interesting people along the way.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.