“Hitchhiking is not a thing of the past; it’s a thing for the future,” Menz tells the BBC.
Still, the two 25-year-olds realise that not everyone shares this sentiment. While hitchhiking was once commonplace around the world, it was later stigmatised as unsafe in the US and parts of Europe. And while it’s a cheap way to travel, it’s also a freedom few can afford.
For many people around the world in remote, rural areas, hitchhiking isn’t a choice; it’s a lifeline – the only way to reach work, school or the next town where buses are scarce. But for young travellers like Menz, Endlicher and a new generation of adventure-seekers who have time, safety nets and passports that open borders, hitchhiking offers a budget‑friendly, eco-conscious way to move through the world, meeting strangers along the way.
The history of hitchhiking
Hitchhiking’s roots stretch back to the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, hitchhiking in the US wasn’t just mainstream, but necessary, as high unemployment during the Great Depression forced many Americans to hitch rides and travel long distances in cars or freight trains in search of scarcely available jobs. When World War Two began, hitchhiking became a patriotic duty to conserve resources for the war effort, as seen in an antique US poster stating: “If you ride alone, you ride with Hitler.”
But by the 1950s, fear took hold. The FBI branded hitchhiking a “menace”, with director J. Edgar Hoover framing it as a safety and national security risk, as he believed that undercover agents could use it to slip through the country undetected. According to Jack Reid, author of the book Roadside Americans, which traces the practice’s history in the US, Hoover instilled a campaign of fear in the US consciousness that largely still remains. A few decades later, coverage of high-profile crimes from US serial killer Edmund Kemper and Australian “backpacker killer” Ivan Milat – both of whom selected victims by offering rides to hitchhikers – cemented its dangerous reputation.
