That is why they are the part of the society, where sincerity and confidence exist, when a stranger's smile is not necessarily a merchant's smile or bought politeness of city service. There's no surprise that hitch hiking only exists outside the sity, and you have to walk a few miles along the road. The driver and the hiker hardly ever exchange addresses, for it's an instantaneous and free connection, and there's no use for meeting outside it anymore. Those who pass by are excluded from these relations. Many drivers, whose car is filled up or those who leave the road make apologetic gestures to the hiker, they're feeling sorry about their exclusiveness.
Truck drivers pick up more seldomly.
When driving about Russia, they often have the hiker tell them stories to prevent from falling asleep. The European frontier guard is looking at you suspiciousy or scornfully when you aren't as respectable as that one in a fashioned car next to you, but we are to be proud of our misery. Neither the frontier guard nor the man in an expensive car can feel the joy of hitch hiking. It's not you who were thrown away from the respectable society, but they who never were inside the Culture. It's not shameful either to hike or to beg at German streets, or to steal, or to refuse to pay, just the opposite, it's a matter of pride, it's the thing that grants us our uniqueness.