Hitchhikers

When summer vacation rolls around, I seem to run into hitchhiking kids all the time. They’re usually standing near a highway entrance, holding a sign with their destination written on it. I came across one yesterday as I was getting on the highway, and there’s something I’d like to tell them.

You’re standing in the wrong place (-_-)

Yesterday’s hitchhiker was holding a sign for somewhere in the opposite direction from where I was going, so I couldn’t give him a lift. But if we’d been headed the same way, and he’d seemed like someone I could safely pick up, I wouldn’t have been opposed to stopping.

The problem is, they’re all standing in the wrong place.

Cars can’t stop on a dime.

They’re usually right before the road that turns toward the highway toll plaza. By the time you spot them near the ETC lanes or the entrance just around the corner, there’s no time to decide to stop—and there’s nowhere to pull over anyway.

Stopping there would also inconvenience the drivers behind you. You almost never see cars pulling over just before a highway entrance, and slamming on the brakes could easily cause a crash. That would be a serious situation.

I may sound like a heartless, cold-blooded person, but I don’t see why I should inconvenience the drivers behind me and risk causing an accident just to stop for a teenage stranger…

Still, I suppose you wouldn’t understand unless you’d driven a car yourself, so I can’t really blame them.

What’s Going Through Their Heads?

And on the other hand, I imagine they’re thinking something like this:

Why are the adults in this world so heartless?
A 15-year-old is out here,
doing his best in the blazing sun,
and not a single person will stop.
There’s an empty passenger seat.
No one’s even in the back seat.
Are there no warmhearted adults willing to pull over?
Is this really all the world has to offer?

Something like that.

No, that’s not it.

If they stood a little farther back—somewhere around the “highway entrance in 200 meters” point, where there’s room for a car to pull over—I bet three times as many drivers would stop.

Hitchhiking around the country is the very essence of youth: a wonderful adventure you can only have now. And that’s exactly why I find myself thinking, with all the well-meaning concern of an old lady, that if they gave a little more thought to where cars can safely stop, they might make even more amazing memories.