The Universal Guide to Hitchhiking Time was, you could crisscross America with nothing but a rucksack and a thumb. You still can, if you know how. I drop my arm and fold in my thumb. The driver didn't even look at me. The emperor's new clothes in reverse.
Nobody likes to feel guilty.
Or maybe he doesn't feel guilty at all. I must have done something. Decent Americans, even decent poor Americans, own a car and drive it everywhere. A man afoot is a loser. A man afoot in America is no man at all.