Hitching finally reaches the end of the road

Hitchhiking seems to have reached the end of the road, according to a new report due out today.

Just 9 per cent of drivers would be likely to stop to offer a lift to a traveller compared to 25 per cent just two years ago, said the survey of thousands of AA members. And only 1 per cent said they were "very likely" to stop for someone thumbing a lift.

Wales was the most likely place in the UK to find willing drivers, followed by Northern Ireland and Scotland, where 10 per cent of those surveyed would stop.

The AA said the growth of lift-sharing websites and concerns about personal safety may be to blame, but the Association of British Drivers said public transport and car ownership may have fuelled the decline.

AA president Edmund King, a former hitchhiker, said: "Sadly we appear to have reached the end of the road for hitchhiking. Drivers have given the practice the thumbs down.

"The older generation are more likely to have thumbed a lift and hence are more likely to pick up hitchhikers. Perhaps cheaper coach travel, growth in car ownership, online lift-sharing sites and personal safety fears have all contributed to the decline in hitchhiking.

"As teenagers, my brothers and I would hitchhike around the UK and Europe, but one rarely sees a hitchhiker today. Some hikers have swapped their thumbs for a computer mouse in order to lift-share from the comfort of their home rather than taking their chances on a rainy roadside."

Hitchhiking has long featured in song and literature, but a large majority in the survey said they had never hitched - 75 per cent of females, 93 per cent of 18-24-year-olds and 88 per cent of 25-34-year-olds.

The older generation, however, is more familiar with the practice. For those aged 55-65, just 48 per cent had not tried it, with 52 per cent of over-65s not used hitchhiking at some point in life.

Roger Lawson, of the Association for British Drivers, said: "The whole country has become more urbanised and you don't see that many hitchhikers. That's certainly changed in my lifetime. Most people take public transport or have a car.

"It depends on the circumstances and where the hitchhiker is, and there are not that many places you can stop to pick someone up in many places. People might be more self- centred now."

But the possible decline of drivers supposedly offering a lift to rain-soaked travellers standing at the side of the road may have given way to the internet age.

The AA said "lift-sharing" is becoming more common, with drives arranged online in advance on websites such as liftshare.com or rideshare.co.uk. Hitchwiki.org offers advice to those wishing to try traditional hitchhiking.It says: "Hitchhiking in Scotland tends to be far easier than England, and can be incredibly easy in the Highlands (specifically towards the west coast and islands), with up to one in five cars stopping. In Dumfries and Galloway, on the Isle of Arran and on the Kintyre peninsula (south-west), hitching locally is reasonably easy.

"The Scottish Highlands are very easy to hitchhike around; however, you should be careful to avoid major trunk routes as people drive very quickly. During the summer, there are a lot of tourists in Highland areas who are much less likely to stop for hitchhikers than locals."

The AA/Populus poll surveyed 16,850 AA members