The Hitchhiker’s guide to the pick-up locations

Abstract

Background: Hitchhiking is a well-known form of transportation, which has been extensively studied from a sociological perspective. While this tourism approach has been popular in some countries for decades, the question of making hitchhiking fast has never been studied from a comprehensive point of view. In this research, we aim to find the best locations for hitchhiking, which may be used in travel recommender systems. Methods: For this purpose, we study the relationships between certain spatial properties and waiting time at pick-up locations, estimate statistical significance of several factors according to various countries. Results: We extracted features for the data from hitchhiking logs, analyzed their importance and built corresponding classification and regression models for estimating hitchhiking experience with a sufficient accuracy. Conclusions: This paper is the first to analyze important spatial factors for a successful hitchhiking trip and construct models to predict the quality and waiting time at hitchhiking locations.

Hitchhiking: Associations With Big Five and Emotional Competences

“…Hitchhiking is defined as the act of soliciting rides from strangers as well as a form of transport, in which the hitchhiker tries to get a lift from a random driver, usually a car or truck driver, for free without prior arrangement and as a one-way trip, usually not involving a change of an initial route (Vedernikov, Kulik, & Ramamohanarao, 2016). Though the phenomenon of hitchhiking was widespread in the 1960s and early 1970s, it lost popularity over time due to different factors (Chesters & Smith, 2001;O'Regan, 2013).…”

“…Emotional competences are defined as the extent to which individuals experience, express, identify, understand, regulate, and use their own emotions and those of others (Brasseur, Grégoire, Bourdu, & Mikolajczak, 2013). The characteristics of hitchhiking (Vedernikov, Kulik Ramamohanarao, 2016), namely the uncertainty of the waiting on the road, soliciting a ride from a stranger, and then eventually sharing a ride with a stranger, make emotional competences theoretically highly relevant for this activity. For example, in the waiting phase, hitchhikers can be continually facing emotional ups and downs, given waiting for hours on the road, regardless of weather conditions, being under the gaze of people, switching between the hope of a car approaching and the disappointment of the car not stopping can be tiring and exhausting (O'Regan, 2012(O'Regan, , 2013.…”

Big data and sustainable cities: applications of new and emerging forms of geospatial data in urban studies

“…In recent years, a popular hitchhikers' website Hitchwiki allows hitchhikers to review hitchhiking locations with location ratings, waiting time, and comments. To get a better understanding of hitchhiking behavior, Vedernikov et al [13] analyze rating and waiting time of hitchhiking locations in 10 countries. Moreover, they develop models to predict the quality and waiting time at hitchhiking locations according to locational characteristics related to road types.…”