The End of the Open Road: The Inside Story of How and Why Hitchhiking Died

When I was a little kid in the mid-70s hitchhiking was part of the normal landscape of driving, neither odd nor unexpected or worrisome. By the time I was a young adolescent in the early-mid-80s, hitchhiking was something for people who were either desperate or reckless or looking for someone to kill. And I should be clear that I certainly wouldn’t let and would do everything I could to prevent my own sons from doing it when they get older. In the third part of our four part series on the end of the open road we look at how and why hitchhiking died.