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

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke1029@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 9, 2009, at 11:24 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:

> Wouldn't it be a Pareto improvement if hitchhiking were made safe,  
> legal, and reliable in America?

In 1973-4, I hitched almost 20,000 miles, coast to coast in the USA,  
Canada to Mexico. I may be qualified to have an opinion on this  
subject. (You can buy my booklet "Dream on a
Star, A Girl With a Car" on my website (www.coolhanduke.com). It is a  
compilation of graffiti gleaned from the back sides of the  
"Pedestrians Prohibited Beyond This Point" signposts on every on-ramp  
in the Interstate System (except Oregon, I believe, where one is  
allowed to hitchhike on the freeway).

In my travels, I often approached highway departments in capitol  
cities to encourage them to facilitate hitchhiking -- benches and  
trash cans and street lights on on-ramps, for example, -- but never to  
any avail.

I have always considered hitch-hiking to be a form of freedom of  
speech. After all, sticking out one's thumb is merely a way of saying  
"can you give me lift?" This is free speech. But the dumb fucks who  
run our cities and states feel otherwise. I believe they are simply  
jealous of the free spirit exhibited by folks who are willing to place  
their journey in the friendly (hopefully) hands of others.

It wouldn't take much to create a mindset (milieu, if you will) in  
this country that makes giving rides to others a common event. We just  
gotta wanna do it.

Dan Scanlan




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