Re: [Pen-l] why don't we legalize hitchhiking?

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

good idea, but there's a problem. Back in the 1960s and early 1970s,
hitching was illegal in most places in the US but people did it
anyway. Then there were scares (including a movie about a
hitch-hiker/killer), so people stopped picking up hitchers and people
stopped hitching. It became a vicious circle. Nowadays, there's a
reason why most people won't pick up riders: a larger percentage are
actual thugs than in the 1960s. Similarly, there's a larger percentage
of bad 'uns picking up hitchers. I guess it's an example of adverse
selection.

Maybe if we have a depression, hitching (and giving rides to
strangers) will become popular again.

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Robert Naiman
<naiman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Wouldn't it be a Pareto improvement if hitchhiking were made safe, legal,
> and reliable in America?
>
> Every day, all across America, vehicles are traveling from point A to point
> B with unused passenger capacity.
>
> At any point in time, if you, as a potential passenger, want to go from one
> city in the continental United States to another, it is very likely that a
> path between the two cities exists that is going to be traversed by vehicles
> with unused passenger capacity.
>
> Suppose that an effective market existed for matching passengers to drivers,
> with the feature that it gave reasonable assurance to both sides about the
> safety and reliability of the other party.
>
> Wouldn't it be cheaper to move around?
>
> Mightn't it be a source of revenue for drivers?
>
> Wouldn't it conserve natural resources and reduce pollution?
>
> Wouldn't this be easier to organize today than at any time in history
> because of the Internet?
>
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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>



-- 
Jim Devine / "Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing
in government and business."  -- Tom Robbins
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