I have. A few months ago, After visiting my friend in the Lower Haight, I was walking to my car at about 8pm when I saw a guy standing on the street corner, furiously looking at a bus map of San Francisco. As I approached him, he asked me if I knew which bus to take to get to San Francisco General Hospital. I tried my best to tell him, but explained that it would require two transfers. He looked very flustered. He proceeded to tell me that he was a medical student from Nebraska and he was in the city for a visiting medical student program and was supposed to be on-call that night at SFGH. I thought about it and decided to ask him if I could drive him. He hesitated, but said that he’d appreciate it, since he was already an hour late.
We had a nice chat during the drive and he was very appreciative. I dropped him off in front of the hospital and he said that he’d always remember my kindness.
As I drove off, I remembered the words of wisdom that my mom and dad had told me….”never give a ride to a stranger/hitch-hiker”. Sometimes, you just know that it’ll be okay.
Any stories, good or bad regarding giving rides to strangers?
I have, lots of times, and without hesitation. But then again I consider my fellow scandiavians mostly harmless. In my book it would be considered rude to just whirl by someone by the roadside asking for a lift.
Yes. I saw a woman, desperately waving at cars, in North Colonie, a quiet part of Northern Albany. I pulled over, and she needed a ride to the hospital because her dad was dying and she needed to see him. I drove her down to Albany Medical and dropped her off at the ER and mark it up as one of the good things I did in life.
I’ve done that three times in Atlanta. All three times, they asked me for money before the end of the ride; once there was also an offer of prostitution. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it again, though.
I used to a lot more back when hitchhiking was a lot more common (late 70’s, early 80’s). I used to hitchhike a fair amount myself, so I figured it was my obligation. The last ride I gave was about 10 years ago. It was Christmas eve, so I was feeling a bit magnanimous. The guy was pretty scruffy looking, but it was Christmas, you know. I was driving up from Santa Barbara to San Francisco so I figured that I could give him a long ride.
I gave him my usual spiel that I was only going up to Solvang or something like that so that I could bail on the guy if he turned out to be an axe murderer. I noticed that he had some blood on his head. He told me that he had just got out of prison and was heading up to Santa Rosa to visit his mother. He said that he had gotten beaten up and robbed, hence the lack of possessions and blood on his head.
Well, he didn’t kill me or anything and as we approached the bay area he tried to convince me to drive him up to Santa Rosa. Instead, I dropped him off at SFO and bought him a bus ticket to Santa Rosa, it being Christmas eve and all. I figure I gained a bit of karma for that one.
I have once. I was with my brother and best friend and were driving from the Radium Hot Springs (in Canada) to the town of Radium. There was a woman hitching by the side of the road; she seemed normal enough and there were 3 of us to one of her, and we considered that we wouldn’t want her to be picked up by someone more dangerous than us… so we gave her a lift into the townsite and she was as perfectly normal as she seemed on first glance. She pointed out where we could see some bighorn sheep and said thanks for the ride when we dropped her off.
I wouldn’t ever pick up someone, man or woman, if I was alone though.
I have many times. If it’s someone with kids, I always stop. Male or female with kids, I stop. I have given male strangers rides before, but never with my kids in the car – unless husband is there too. I always kind of see it as repaying the kindnesses given my father who always had car problems and would end up walking upwards of 30 miles to/from work. Sometimes strangers would be kind enough to offer him a ride – I try to be like that.
It drives my husband batty that I do this, but such is the way of things. Perhaps one day will be my day to die, but not yet
I am female and have always lived in urban areas in the South, though. I understand I’d probably have a much different attitude about it if I’d lived in rural areas. What I mean is, no one is going to freeze to death or be on the road for days and days if I don’t give them a ride.
An older woman visiting her daughter in my neighborhood wanted a ride half a dozen blocks to the grocery store in the direction I was going anyway. It’s a very safe neighborhood, the kids weren’t with me, and she was perfectly ordinary looking. It would have been hard to say no. That’s the only time I can think of.
About six months ago I was leaving work and I saw a guy walking in the heat and felt bad for him so I picked him up. He told me he had just gotten out of jail. I drove him way out of my way to the bus station downtown. He seemed like an ok guy and he was on his way to Florida and I had worked in Florida the last two summers so we talked about that on the way. It was my good deed for the day.
When I was in college it was standard to hitch up and down Mass. Ave from MIT to Harvard Square, and to give rides to people once I had a car.
I don’t know if this counts, but colleges often had ride boards for long distance trips. I gave several people, basically strangers, rides of hundreds of miles from these, sharing driving and gas costs ($.40 a gallon) of course.
I’ve got the ultimate “What comes around goes around” story about this.
Many, many years ago my car had broken down which led me into the predicament of having to walk home. (About five miles)
On my long walk home, (About a 1/4mile into my journey) a guy pulls over the side of the road and asks me if I need a ride. I accepted and thanked him for the ride.
Fast forward about a year later. I’m driving down 635 and I notice a guy with a gas can walking down the side of the highway. I pull over and tell the guy to hop in.
On our way to the gas staion the guy kept saying: “You look familiar, I swear I know you from somewhere.”
To me he didn’t look familiar at all so I kept telling him: “No,I think you’re mistaken.”
Then finally he said: “Hey wait a minute! aren’t you the guy I gave a ride home that one time when you were walking down such-n-such street?”
“Holy shit!! That was me!! What a fucking trip dude!!”
But yeah, mainly the only people I give rides to are people who seem to be having car problems or have kids.
I have a few times, but not often. I had a copy of Let’s Go: California back in the '80s that said ‘Hitchhiking in California is tantamount to suicide.’ Giving rides to strange people can be dangerous in many cities.
The last time I gave a ride was a couple of years ago. I was driving the Herald, and a middle-aged guy saw me coming and literally started jumping up and down and waving. His car had broken down and he had about a six mile walk ahead of him. Turns out he was a British car fan, and if he was going to get a lift he was happy to get one in a '63 Triumph convertible.
I think it’s prettty safe to give rides in this area. But I’m an ‘L.A. guy’ and old habits die hard.
I was getting ready to leave Romania after being there for a couple of days. My GPS didn’t have the roads on it so I had to follow my road map. I had stopped to make sure that I was on the correct road when some 16-18 year old comes up to me and points to the map and asks about the town I’m looking for. When he found out I was going for the boarder he said it was the right road then hopped on the back before I even knew what was happening.
I figured he really wanted to go so I took him. I had to stop for gas and he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. He rode on the back for an hour or so then when we got to the check point he hopped off and shook my hand. I’m guessing that he wanted to get to Hungry to find work. I was kind of worried that he didn’t have a helmet or anything. He seemed to love it though, I only saw a couple of motorcycles in all of Romania. He waved at everyone.
I wonder what ever happened to him and if he ever told anyone about how he got to the border. At least it makes for an interesting story for me.
My husband has several times, and we’ve picked up a couple together. The most recent was just this summer. We were on our way to Mankato and picked up a guy on his way to Rochester. He said he was going to see if he was a match for his sister for a bone marrow transplant. We bought him a sandwich and a bottle of water on the way and tried to help him find a Salvation Army where he could grab a shower.
I don’t pick up hitchhikers by myself but I did stop for some guys just outside of town whose car had obviously broken down. Only one of the guys came with me and the rest stayed back with the car. Poor guy had bought a car at the dealership at the edge of town and was bringing his old one in for the trade when it broke down. I dropped him off at his new car and he went back to get his friends.
Once in college, was driving my car out of my apartment complex to go to campus for something early one Saturday morning. The college town had no Saturday bus service, for what that’s worth. Saw an older woman standing by the streetside; she stuck her thumb out and sent a hopeful smile my way. I gave her a ride, we wound up chatting, and we remained friends for several years.
About 6 years ago, I was working in an office building that connected to a shopping plaza of sorts. In the hallways that connected the office buildings to the passage to the shopping area, there are a couple of halls that lead to outside entrances. I walked by a woman who was obviously confused, and a man who was trying to help her; she was not too coherent but managed to get across that she was trying to find a bus to get to Kaiser Permanente on such-and-such street. I didn’t know when (or if) a bus would come by that would help her out, nor did I think she’d make it to her destination even if the right bus came, so I ran and got my car and drove her to the Kaiser office after phoning them and confirming that they did indeed recognize her name (she didn’t tell me, but she held out her checkbook so I could see her name). I got her to an area with a receptionist and hopefully they got her sorted out. At least it seemed a safer place to leave her than wandering around a shopping center / office complex.
The last time I did so was a few years ago in Salt Lake City. I sat next to a very pretty redhead on the plane - we exchanged pleasantries, but not much more than that while flying. I saw her outside the airport looking a bit lost and asked if I could help. She was trying to find a shuttle to her hotel - I showed her where they stopped, and then (innocently enough) said that I had a rental car and was staying just down the block from her hotel and that I could give her a ride.
She accepted, I dropped her off and didn’t think much more about it until I happened to run into her at a retaurant that night. I ditched my boss and hung out with her and her group that night. I ended up spening the night with her and we were a couple for about six months. Maybe I should do this more often.
This barely counts, but the only time I can remember would have been a couple of years ago when I saw a guy whose car had broken down. He was pretty sure he had run out of gas. I drove him up to the nearest gas station (probably less than a mile away), waited for him to buy a can and fill it up, and then drove him back to his car. If I remember correctly, gas didn’t end up doing the trick, so he had to call for a tow anyway, but he was a nice enough guy and very appreciative.
I think it’s one of those things where generally I would be willing to give a stranger a ride so long as it’s on MY terms. If someone were actively asking me for a ride, it would take some pretty extraordinary circumstances for me to go along with it.
At least six times, the first two back in the 70’s. The first time was a guy so drunk I was afraid he’d pass out on the street and get run over. I was young (17? 18?) and strong, a couple of miles from home, and he couldn’t have been in a more harmless state. That year I picked up a couple of HS girls, who turned out to be going to the house of someone I knew to smoke pot. They complained about business men hitting on them when the hitchhiked, and then hit on me. To this day I kind of regret the fact that my mom was waiting for me. The other times I’ve given some skiers or snowboarders rides - they aren’t going far, and you can tell when they are harmless. One poor guy was walking through South Park on a damned cold day to see his very sick mom.
Once, it was every guys’ fantasy when three college girls asked for a ride because their car wouldn’t start. Of course by then I was in father mode and told them it wasn’t safe for them, but they really needed a ride and I figured I knew I was safe. It turned out I was I was going within a mile of one of their homes. On the way, one of their moms called and told them to get a ride from some guy! To this day, I wonder. I mean, they came up to me in a parking lot, and yeah their car really wouldn’t start but why me? They were all going to small Christian colleges, maybe they figured God would help them make the right choice. Maybe they figured I looked safer than anyone else. I’d like to think they thought I was better looking than anyone else in the lot, and wanted to me to hit on all of them, but of that at Breck or wherever aren’t that high.
As a note of caution, my sister once started to pick up a guy in Boston in the heavy rain. She drove off when he pulled a knife as he started to get in.
Yeah, once I saw a woman with a big cast on her arm and a couple grocery bags sitting in the grocery store foyer on a hot day. I knew what she was doing, which was enjoying the A/C as long as she could in the store before heading to the bus stop. So i asked her if i could take her anywhere, and she gratefully accepted. I ran her home. She said her cast had been driving her NUTS in the heat and she’d had a pretty miserable week.
I’d do it again, readily enough, but as someone else said it makes a difference that it’s me doing the offering, not someone asking me. I’ve often wanted to offer a ride to people caught in a really bad downpour, but often my passenger seat is so full of crap I can’t.
