She suddenly had four unexpected days free and decided to drop by. She rang a ride sharing agency to see if there were any rides to Switzerland going. By some fluke of nature she scored a ride with aguy that was heading off right now! Surely an omen! She packed a small bag, the guy picked her up and they left right away, at about eight in the evening. The car was full! This guy had four passengers from the agency with him, and they rode all night through till about six in the morning when they arrived in eastern Switzerland. The driving apparently left a lot to be desired.
Now my girlfriend found herself in the east of Switzerland, and I was in the west, still some hundreds of kilometers away, so she hitched across Switzerland landing on my doorstep a few hours later. She'd never hitched alone before and wasn't very keen on the idea, for all the obvious reasons. Still she reached the west of Switzerland in about four rides, on a frost-bitten autumn morning and arrived on my doorstep chilled and tired to the bone (not having slept all night). Was I surprised or what?
We got to speaking about the ride, the scary driving, the rain and the hitch. Some interesting questions came to mind. I mean we'd both agree that hitching, especially for a lone woman, isn't considered to be a very safe practice - and understandably so. But was this ride much safer? She certainly didn't feel safe. This guy was driving like a repressed rally driver, and wasn't exactly topped up on sleep either. Ride sharing is often touted as the safe way of hitching. But why?
Fundamentally I think the reason is that the drivers have registered their trip with the agency. In so doing they've theoretically provided some identification for themselves and their car. The reasoning is that if the driver is traceable and identifiable, they're less likely to rob, rape, maim and kill their passengers. In practice, the checks on the driver's identity and that of his car are so loose as to be near meaningless and the driver could in fact be anyone at all in any car at all. But let's be generous and assume the driver and car are in fact traceable.
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