magazine aims to incorporate a hitchhiking club into its marketing strategy, an
idea which is starting to spread around the country. Our card will incorporate the
logo, a photo ID, the rider/driver home address, and possibly a bar code for
security checks.
will keep its own
data base and incorporate it into any future national hitchhiker's club program. Hitchhiker's Club
cards will be offered free with all
magazine subscriptions.
is currently
promoting this idea to the EV industry, as well as gridlock reduction
transportation projects. The staff
networks with the electric vehicle divisions of large automakers like Toyota,
thanks to its associations with Electrifying
Times magazine.
will sell the idea of hitchhiking clubs to teen magazines, skateboard magazines,
and other green media publications.
Billy Wimsatt who published the incredible manifesto on inner city
youth culture called No
More Prisons has expressed interest in lending his name and energy to
the Hitchhiker's Club.
We could theoretically have ten of thousands of
Hitchhiker's Club cards out there in a very short time.
We can run security checks by cell phone or
on-board automobile computers as presented by the
Avego video above. If
someone like Oprah decides to put their stamp of approval on it, there's no
telling how quickly this could happen.
But first it's going to take awhile to convince mom and pops and school teachers
that our system is safe.
There was a time back in the 60's and 70's when you could hitch cross
country in less than three days. Then one day the hitchhiking culture died
because the media killed it, and it became impossible to get picked up.
The Hitchhiker's Club card will make
hitchhiking safe and fun again, especially in the suburbs. It will progressively decrease the numbers of
cars on the road. Think of the good it could do around large
cities if folks embraced it. Cabbies are going to bitch like hell. So
what?
The card is for drivers and riders, interchangeable. Riders and drivers will need to
show each other their photo ID before
entering the vehicle. The logo will be BIG enough on the card, the size of a
concert pass, so it can be recognized from afar.
has it all worked out. Yes, it will be a commercial venture, and it will make
money! And it will be supported and promoted by a youth oriented green fashion
magazine.
There is an organization called GO GERONIMO
in California which
has already set a precedent. They have 400+ card members.
Please go to their site and see for yourself how this idea is already working.
The best website about hitchhiking I have
found so far belongs to Bernd
Wechner in Australia. Go there for hundreds of hitchhiking links
around the world, especially this one for the Vilnius
Hitch-hiking Club. Very cool animated road graphic!
Recently I was just made aware that hitch
hiking now goes by another name in the Washington DC area. They call it "slugging"
and in March of 2004 I learned of their website:
Slug-Lines.
David LeBlanc wrote a
book about it all way back in 1999. He is
working on an updated revised edition.
You might also want to drop in on Morgan the
'Sal'man's Digihitch.
Morgan had a great photo on his website shot by Andrew Shapter of a beautiful
woman hitch hiking. But he decided to remove the image, felt it gave people the
wrong impression. We urge photographers to
try their hand at the fashion meets hitchhiking theme.
Auto-Free Times, now called Culture Change,
published a short
article I wrote about
's Hitchhiker's
Club. Let's keep plugging the concept and eventually it will take shape.
Remy Chevalier
(Lü)
magazine
(Meaning "green" in Chinese...)
