Hitchiking the east coast of USA as a woman alone : am i gonna die ?

[otch0z]

Hey y'all !

I'll make this quick. I have experience hitchiking alone in eastern Canada and France. I've been wanting to go back to NOLA for a while now (so it's a Montreal to NOLA kind of situation)
But I'm worried about hitchiking alone in the states because, well, people seem more dangerous than in other places AND they are allowed to carry guns.

How do you americans deal with that ? Its that a worry at all ?
And is there someone who wants to hitch from montreal to NOLA and/or nashville say next fall ?

 

[AlexKnoch]

I'll be hitchhiking from the Northeast to Mexico this fall for Dia de Los Muertes. When were you planning on doing this trip exactly?

I personally have never had a problem while hitchhiking in the states but I'm also not a female.

For safety, I always carry some bear spray just in case and I never take a ride if I'm even a little unsure.

If you start to feel unsafe and you want to be let out, a good trick is to pretend like you're going to throw up so they pull over.

Hitchhiking along the east coast is harder than the west coast and the laws/police are more strict.

 

[otch0z]

I'll be hitchhiking from the Northeast to Mexico this fall for Dia de Los Muertes. When were you planning on doing this trip exactly?

I personally have never had a problem while hitchhiking in the states but I'm also not a female.

For safety, I always carry some bear spray just in case and I never take a ride if I'm even a little unsure.

If you start to feel unsafe and you want to be let out, a good trick is to pretend like you're going to throw up so they pull over.

Hitchhiking along the east coast is harder than the west coast and the laws/police are more strict.

Thanks, i never thought about the puking trick !
Where will you be hitching from exactly? That could be a plan

 

[AlexKnoch]

Thanks, i never thought about the puking trick !
Where will you be hitching from exactly? That could be a plan

I don't have any solid plans yet other than to explore the Northeast after the rainbow gathering. Send me a message and we can plan something!

Feel free to add me on Facebook if you want to video chat or message me there. I'm usually more responsive to Fb messages.

 

[ali]

I don't have any advice about hitchhiking because i've only done it a handful of times, but i do have experience being a foreigner traveling alone in the US.

When you're not used to the gun culture, it is really scary to see civilians walking around with guns on their hips or strapped on the backs of their pickup trucks. It's not just the presence of the guns per se, since hunters and farmers in other countries carry guns too, but it feels more dangerous in the US due to their laws that allow many people to get a weapon without any background checks or license, and on top of that there's the whole "stand your ground" thing in some states which means people can commit murder and get away with it if they pretend it was because they feared for their life. I've always felt a bit unsafe in the US as a result of this culture.

The best advice i can give is to do your utmost not to piss anybody off, try to avoid getting into political discussions and try to defuse any arguments before they happen. Be polite to everyone - if they're bigots just smile and nod and make an inconspicuous exit. And if you see other people getting aggressive or starting a fight, just get as far away as fast as possible. These are good rules for traveling in any country, but for me i am even more mindful of it in the US because there are relatively more untrained and unbalanced people carrying around deadly weapons, and in certain situations they're emboldened by a legal system that will forgive their bloodthirstiness.

Something sobering - you are more likely to be shot to death in the US than you are to be killed in a car accident. To be fair, more than half of gun deaths are suicides, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but it's still significantly worse than Canada or many other countries in the so-called "west".

 

[Matt Derrick]

I'd say the good news is that you'll likely fly down the highway getting a lot of rides pretty quickly, while you'll more than likely run into one or two pervs, the majority of people that will pick you up are going to be good people. just carry some pepper spray, and try to take a pic of the person's license plate as you're running up to the car. if you need someone to text that pic to, let me know, I don't mind checking in on you to make sure you didn't get kidnapped

 

[Jimmy Beans]

you are more likely to be shot to death in the US than you are to be killed in a car accident. To be fair, more than half of gun deaths are suicides

In other words, you're more likely to shoot yourself to death than to be shot to death by someone else and you're twice as likely to die in a car accident than you are to be shot to death by someone else. Idk if I'm just numb to it having lived in the states my whole life but I don't really even trip on people with guns here. Which is odd considering I've had guns pointed at my face on 5 separate occasions(mostly home invasions) and I've only been in 3 car accidents(2 of which were very minor). My brother was shot and killed in a home invasion and my nephew was stabbed to death in a fight. As best I can recall those are the only two people I've known to be murdered of the several dozen people I've known who have died.

I've known way more people who've taken their own lives with guns, ropes, drugs than people I've known who've been murdered. Everyone else seems to take their own lives in one way or another. So yeah, the statistics seem to jive in my personal experience. You're more likely to kill yourself than be killed by someone else here. I think that's partially why I don't worry about it happening much. I'm not worried about me killing me, and I know it's much less likely someone else will kill me. I don't think most people want to pull the trigger on someone else. It's nearly impossible to get away with and you get a lot more years using a gun than you do a knife etc.

I'm not trying to downplay gun violence or say don't concern yourself with it at all. I'm just kinda trippin on statistics more than anything.

 

[ali]

I find the statistics interesting too. I haven't (yet) found any reliable statistics on fatal car accidents, but from what i have found it does seem that around half of them involve the driver smashing into something and killing themself. So that works out to be comparable to the suicide subset of firearm deaths. I think if you are worried about being hit by a car driven by someone else, you should be equally worried about being shot by someone else - in the US. In Canada, the rate is an order of magnitude less likely for homocidal shootings, which is to say, i think most Canadians never worry that they might get shot, or think about taking steps to avoid it, whereas they might take steps to avoid getting run over by a car. In the US, it's probably wise to take the same amount of caution when around people who may be armed as you would when crossing a road.

Anyway, this is a total sidetrack to the original question, sorry otch0z! I agree with Matt that the majority of people you meet will be perfectly kind.

 

[Tony G]

Hey y'all !

I'll make this quick. I have experience hitchiking alone in eastern Canada and France. I've been wanting to go back to NOLA for a while now (so it's a Montreal to NOLA kind of situation)
But I'm worried about hitchiking alone in the states because, well, people seem more dangerous than in other places AND they are allowed to carry guns.

How do you americans deal with that ? Its that a worry at all ?
And is there someone who wants to hitch from montreal to NOLA and/or nashville say next fall ?

your not going to die but you better be prepared the road will eat you if you let it trust nobody without vetting them carry a knife never flash around cash and most inportant trust your gut it will save ya...saved me more times than i can count

 

[otch0z]

These are all good advice, thanks y'all !

 

[otch0z]

I'd say the good news is that you'll likely fly down the highway getting a lot of rides pretty quickly, while you'll more than likely run into one or two pervs, the majority of people that will pick you up are going to be good people. just carry some pepper spray, and try to take a pic of the person's license plate as you're running up to the car. if you need someone to text that pic to, let me know, I don't mind checking in on you to make sure you didn't get kidnapped

Yeah I've started taking pics of plates when dudes pick me up (which is all the time or almost) (i realize woman can be shady too but hitchiking is a lot about your gut and usually i feel confortable with the woman picking me up)
If i do hitch in the states i will definitely remember that. Thank you so much !