# What do you think the percent that we make up?



## hobopoe (Feb 15, 2014)

So, I am curious. What percent of the population do you think people like us make up? People who willingly live like we do, or hop freight? Just curious. I am curious about what percentage in the U.S. and then the percentage in the world.


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## Ristoncor (Feb 15, 2014)

I can't really estimate, but the traveling/squatting "culture" or whatever you call it is much more prevalent, at least in some places. In America, there's probably a larger train-hopping scene, just because I don't think there are as many train yards etc. In smaller countries. Just my thoughts.


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## hobopoe (Feb 15, 2014)

do you think we are more than 2%, but less than 10%?


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## lry (Feb 15, 2014)

342ish million ish ppl in america. And there's no way to gauge the traveling culture, I don't think. Prolly few thousands, maybe tens of thousands between ALL the different groups. So maybe a fraction of 1 percent in america? Elsewhere, no idea.


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## Ristoncor (Feb 15, 2014)

In America? Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate. I know 10% of America is atheist/non religious and that's 31 million people, roughly. So I would say about 2-5%. Maybe even lower.


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 15, 2014)

We dont even compare to places like central america & asia where train surfing is the norm. Those people ride openly on the front of units, stradling knuckles & other insane shit, with nothing but maybe a plastic bag; all the while fighting for their stuff & spot on their train.

We have embraced the culture but will never experience true poverty & desperation here in the US/CA. We have chosen living this anti civ lifestyle so please dont forget this. Even our poorest, unpriveledged people had oppertunities of an education, shitty jobs, clean water & lots of gov sponsored programs from ebt, to ssi/ssdi, tafdc, student loans, housing & the list goes on. We have everything where as these poor people would sell their soul to come live off the scraps of the American dream.
Keep it in perspective kids. We can ride often with a whole train to ourselves because of the insane consumer appetite of the majority. I feel privledged because i am. I have made all my own bad choices, but that down mean i cant turn it all around.
This may be veering into off topic but think we need to remind ourselves sometimes.
We ride with dogs, others elsewhere would have eaten those dogs.


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## hobopoe (Feb 15, 2014)

That being said (and i wholly agree with you) highwayman, do you think we will experience another great depression? A lot of people in wisconsin are talking about that might be a possibility.


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 15, 2014)

No one with a clear head stays in a place that isnt working out for them. Dont wait for things to get worse, go somewhere & improve your lot. 

Just kidding of course...but who conciously lives in wisconsin? Lol things can & are bad everywhere. They may get worse but can improve too.

If there is another greater depresion us here with experience should for the first time actually have an advantage.

I am out of work, no food, no cash, 2 months behind on rent bills but i have been here before & chances are tough times will always come again.
Lots of regular people have lost property, jobs & their sense of security. My family (mom, sisters, nieces,nephews) lost their house but got an apt now & doin fine.

I dont know if my own eviction is immenent, just trying to get healthy & back to work. I can ride trains for work/fun if the time is right. Now, Im just hunkering down for the last month of winter, fingers crossed.


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## janktoaster (Feb 15, 2014)

Eh I dunno, it's ever changing.. and some people are constantly on the road, others are for certain parts of the year. I'd say maybe between 5,000 and 10,000 but that includes hopping, hitching, rubber tramping, etc.. but honestly who the fuck really knows haha


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 15, 2014)

If you listen to any folk, bluegrass, country you will here & see how the rails & the road never leave your soul even long after youve hung up your traveling boots. Hank1,2 3, Willie, Johnny Cash, Leon Russel, Darius Rucker. There is that essence of the rails/road in many of their songs. 

We didnt invent this culture, we are just carrying the torch. It is also the most free i have ever been, & lov the knowledge that i can be free anytime i want. Just throw on my pack & go.


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## lry (Feb 15, 2014)

highwayman said:


> If you listen to any folk, bluegrass, country you will here & see how the rails & the road never leave your soul even long after youve hung up your traveling boots. Hank1,2 3, Willie, Johnny Cash, Leon Russel, Darius Rucker. There is that essence of the rails/road in many of their songs.
> 
> We didnt invent this culture, we are just carrying the torch. It is also the most free i have ever been, & lov the knowledge that i can be free anytime i want. Just throw on my pack & go.



I don't think its ever been explained better than this. I wish more saw it as such!


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## Tick Dickler (Feb 16, 2014)

if i remember correctly, the guy in american nomads said there were about 20,000 train hoppers in the us.


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## janktoaster (Feb 16, 2014)

Tick Dickler said:


> if i remember correctly, the guy in american nomads said there were about 20,000 train hoppers in the us.



For some reason I feel like that number is a bit steep.. but then I think about how massive America is, and it might not be all that steep..


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## hobopoe (Feb 16, 2014)

So lets use that as our number for now. 20k out of 313 million (according to census).


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## sketchytravis (Feb 16, 2014)

hobopoe said:


> So lets use that as our number for now. 20k out of 313 million (according to census).



But that's just trainhoppers... Not even leather and rubbertramps


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## Tick Dickler (Feb 16, 2014)

sketchytravis said:


> But that's just trainhoppers... Not even leather and rubbertramps


wait i thought train hoppers were pretty a pretty small percentage of all travelers? are there really that few traveling kids in the us?


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## Deleted member 2626 (Feb 16, 2014)

well put highwayman i can relate there not even music just feelings from the road but as you said the soul. but Darius Rucker? mwhaha was in a cooler unpopular band then sold out for modern country


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 16, 2014)

Tatanka said:


> well put highwayman i can relate there not even music just feelings from the road but as you said the soul. but Darius Rucker? mwhaha was in a cooler unpopular band then sold out for modern country


I knew id get flack for throwin Hootie in there. Wagon wheel is a such a catchy song & to me hes a rebel for gettin into the country scene. Most of Nashville is filled with similar cookie cutter, snow white types. They are the real fakes with their holier than tho, Glod bless you attitudes. They are all so proper, perfect & attractive hypocritical christians. Who knows if he wrote that song or ever stepped foot on rr tracks other then to just shoot an album cover or video. I just like how hes a dose of pigment in an otherwise boring & pale ass industry.


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 16, 2014)

Looks like that song was spun from a Bob Dylan chorus/ Old Crow Medicine Show tune.


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## Deleted member 2626 (Feb 16, 2014)

Yeah old crow but it is catchy and true on him being black but he isn't the first black country singer all their songs either include- redneck, beers, big trucks, country, or.mud yet none of them even live a remotely country lifestyle or practice kindness I'm every day life in the "Christian" spirit


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## Deleted member 2626 (Feb 16, 2014)

In* fuck these smartphones


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## janktoaster (Feb 17, 2014)

(the original Bob Dylan version) apparently he wrote it and then never finished it


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## Matt Derrick (Feb 19, 2014)

20,000 is a pretty generous number. i mean, it's impossible to tell, but i personally think it's no more than 5,000 people that are _actively _traveling right now.

so my guestimate answer to your original question of what percentage of americans are train hoppers... it's something like 0.0000002 percent. include other forms of travel (rubber tramping, sailing?) and it increases to maybe 0.000003 percent.

what would be neat is to have an improptu party/gathering/census. i don't know if anyone remembers "meet in st louis 6/6/06", but the way it was organized was that they started spreading the rumor that 'all the punx meet in st louis on 6/6/6" as far back as 2003. it was word of mouth only and hand written notes stuck on walls in punk houses. but it worked, i think about 150 punks/travel kids showed up in st louis and all sorts of scumfuckery went down and the cops came and arrested everyone.

so if stp did a party/census just to see how many people showed up (perhaps using the model above) maybe we could get a decent number counted while having a killer party as well.


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## hobopoe (Mar 3, 2014)

This made me smile endlessly. Just brightened up a day.


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## Cardboard (Mar 3, 2014)

hobopoe said:


> So, I am curious. What percent of the population do you think people like us make up? People who willingly live like we do, or hop freight? Just curious. I am curious about what percentage in the U.S. and then the percentage in the world.


I think you might need to clarify this question before expecting any reasonable answer. People like us means people who use STP? I have only met a handful of people from STP, but I would hesitate to group myself to "we" with nearly anyone. The same with "live like we do"... Hop freight, thats a solid question, and I imagine that 20k might be reasonable, though i also imagine it is near impossible to say for certain.There isall types of people riding freight, and I think it is actually getting more and more trendy. I mean, look how many people on STP are here for "research", as in not actively traveling, or never having actually travelled.


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## hobopoe (Mar 3, 2014)

I agree that the original post was vague, but I am actually going to refer to the above answers where this was further fleshed out. Thank you for your reply though. I can only agree about the thought of freight hopping becoming trendy, unfortunately. I am not sure if it is good or bad that this is happening, but I agree it is becoming trendy.


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## treatment (Mar 14, 2014)

I didn't really read past the first few posts in this thread. Just a disclaimer. 

I have no idea how to, and I don't really know how anyone would quantify 'traveling' folk in the US. 

When it comes to train-riders, though, I was talking to an older, more experienced friend of mine a few years ago. I asked how many riders he thought were out there at the moment, and he asked whether I meant how many stupid crust lords are stumbling around train yards once in a while, or how many actual train riders there were. I asked for what he'd call an 'real' train rider, and he said pretty simply that he'd put that at someone who rides more than 50 trains a year. He put that number about 500, at an obviously rough estimate. Which sounds like it's probably more accurate than people would think/like to think. There's a lotta folks around claiming to ride fr8 hella hard bro, who barely touch the rails in a given year. 

Just Food4Less. Er, Thought.


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