Hitch-hiking Survey

The Suite 101 Hitch-hiking Survey

If you have ever hitch-hiked, please complete this survey form.

Larry and Don Evans used a survey almost identical to this one in 1980 in the United States. They got about 1,000 responses after distributing 10,000 questionaires and compiled what is still the best guidebook to hitch-hiking in America that exists - Hey Now, Hitchhikers!

Not all web browsers support forms, or this kind of mail form, so if you have any problems at all, feel free to email your responses directly, or fax them or snail-mail them, whatever is most convenient and makes the day. You may find it useful to print the form once you've completed it. Alternate means of forwarding the completed form are:

	Email:	bernd(at)wechner.info
	Mail:	6 Montagu Street, Mount Stuart 7000, Australia

If you'd like to use email (because this form won't work on your browser, or whatever reason) you can request an email version of the form by sending an email to bernd(at)wechner.info, with "send survey" in the subject (yes, in lower case). This will send you a form you can reply to.

Share the survey with your friends! You can download an elegant version of this survey in one of two formats, for printing on two sides of a single sheet of paper, which you can distribute, as far and wide as possible to help the cause. It folds into a nice brochure and contains all contact information for submitting it as well as pointers to the on-line form. Just download one of the following files (they are all identical except for format):

PDF format (A4)
PDF format (US)
RTF format (A4)
RTF format (US)

PDF (Portable Document Format) can be read and printed elegantly using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded onto almost any desktop computer.

RTF (Rich Text Format) format can be read and printed elegantly using almost any word processing tool including Microsoft Word and Word Perfect.

US paper size is 8.5 x 11 inches and used almost everywhere in the United States and parts of the Americas.
A4 paper size is 297 x 210 mm is used almost everywhere else.

There are 36 simple questions, it shouldn't take all that much of your time. Now, fill in this form, share some experiences, and help us create a broader more current guide! Let's do better.

About You

1. Year of birth:
2. Nationality:
3. Where you live:
4. Your sex:		male	female
5. Currently	a student?	yes	no
	a university graduate?	yes	no
	Fields(s) of study:
6. Job/profession:

Your Hitch-hiking

7. Year when you first hitch-hiked:
8. Year(s) when you hitch-hiked most:	Were you a student then? yes no partly

9.	How many times have you hitched more than a few kilometres? 1-10 10-25 25-50 50-100 100-500 500+
10.	Where have you done most of your hitchhiking and how would you rate local attitudes towards hitchhiking there? excellent good fair poor bad

11. You ordinarily hitch-hike:	locally nationally internationally globally	alone with a male friend with a female friend with 2 or more others
12. You hitch-hike	with children? yes no sometimes	with pets? yes no sometimes
13. At a guess, how long is,	your average wait? less than 15 minutes 15 to 30 minutes 30 minutes to 1 hour 1 to 2 hours over 2 hours	your average ride? less than 15 minutes 15 to 30 minutes 30 minutes to 1 hour 1 to 2 hours over 2 hours
14. Your longest hitch-hike in one trip was:	100 km or less 100-500 km 500-1,000 km 1,000-2,000 km over 2,000 km	1 day 2-5 days 5-10 days 1 month longer

15.

Longest Wait(s)

Where

When

16. Do you,	use a sign? always often sometimes seldom never	ask drivers personally? always often sometimes seldom never
17. Do you contact rides using:	ride-share services? always often sometimes seldom never	a CB radio? always often sometimes seldom never
18. Hitch-hiking at night -	you think: cool, I love it don't care OK under lights if I must, prefer not to I hate it	you do it: always often sometimes seldom never
19. Do you ever,	share expenses? always often sometimes seldom never	share driving? always often sometimes seldom never
20. How often do you ride over five hours,	in cars? often sometimes seldom never	in trucks? often sometimes seldom never

21.	Do you ever turn down rides? often seldom sometimes never Why?

22.	Do you think attitudes towards hitch-hiking are? getting better getting worse no change

Drivers

23. What percentage of the drivers do you,	feel uneasy with? less than 10% 10-25% 25-50% 50-75% 75-90% more than 90%	feel very comfortable with? less than 10% 10-25% 25-50% 50-75% 75-90% more than 90%
24. How many people are usually in the vehicle that picks you up?		one two three four+
25. Have the drivers ever hitch-hiked themselves?		always often sometimes seldom never
26. Do the people who pick you up,	share food? always often sometimes seldom never	invite you home? always often sometimes seldom never
27. How often do truck drivers:	stop for you, if moving? always often sometimes seldom never	give you a ride, if already stopped and you ask? always often sometimes seldom never

Other Vehicles

28.	Have you ever hitch-hiked on,	a boat/ship? often sometimes seldom once never	an aeroplane? often sometimes seldom once never	a motorcycle? often sometimes seldom once never
29.	Have you ever hopped freight trains?		often sometimes seldom once never
	Any good railyards/bad railyards?

Trouble

30. Have you ever lost something because,	you left it in the car? often sometimes seldom once never		you were robbed? often sometimes seldom once never
31. Physically, have you ever been	threatened? often sometimes seldom once never		assaulted? often sometimes seldom once never

32. Sexually, have you ever been

invited?
   often
   sometimes
   seldom
   once
   never

molested?
   often
   sometimes
   seldom
   once
   never

assaulted?
   often
   sometimes
   seldom
   once
   never

33. Have you ever been

(by the police):
   asked to move?
   warned?
   fined?
   searched?
   arrested?
   jailed?

When, where, why, did this happen?

Tips and Things

34.	Why do you hitch?
35.	What is your worst problem when you hitch? How do you avoid it?
36.	List a couple of routes that you feel are truly impossible to hitch, and a few that you have found easy or enjoyable.

Further Comments?

Any Further Comments:

Finally

Include your name and address if you like the idea of credit, thanks, or joining an international hitchers club or mailing list. Remain anonymous if you prefer, and just submit your contribution. Take note, due to powers beyond our control (web technology) when you submit this form, the email address your browser is configured with is confessed - we will see it. Your browser may in fact (should) warn you about this when you submit. We are happy to respect explicitly requested anonymity however, so be sure to specify so, if you'd like that, though it clearly demands a little trust. Alas there isn't any way around that technically except to configure the confessed email address of your browser, which is unfortunately inconvenient.

I would like to remain anonymous

Yes

Don't Care

Name:
Email Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
Address:
Country: