Don't accept lifts from strange men.

It amuses me when the programme Race Across the World talks about Car Sharing when it’s actually hitchhiking they’re talking about. I always wonder about the risks especially if the competitors are both women.
Having said that I used to hitchhike in my younger days but it was a different world then.

Sad insight into modern life. I wouldn't accept a lift from anyone I don't know as too old now to fight back should it prove necessary. However, my late husband who was in the Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm, relied on kind people who stopped for him when trying to get home. He was always in uniform - they were never allowed civilian clothes in his days - with his sailor hat on the side if his backpack. He met some lively people and, had henit been able to hitch hike home, on his low wages we would have seen a lot less of each other. My friend and I also got lifts if we missed our last train/bus home and really never thought twice about it. Happy Days !

Just on a lighter note,an older friend ( very ancient , older than me) said she had been leaving her back door open at night for years but no bloke had come in and ‘ravished’ her yet. I know it wouldn’t be funny if it really happened but she had me in stitches !

As with most of our generation, I was warned about accepting lifts from strangers and even refused a lift from a neighbour as a child. I was also terrified by an attempt by a kerb crawler when walking home from secondary school.
However, in more recent years, I was out on my motorbike and had to abandon it at the side of a country road due to a sudden totally flat tyre (caused by a nail - grrrrr). Finding I had the wrong number on my phone for the breakdown service, I was trudging along the road home when a disreputable looking van pulled in beside me and I was dreading how to deal with the possibility of being offered a lift. I was slightly relieved that it was a woman who was driving, who said she guessed it was me who had abandoned "that gorgeous bike", said she had also been a biker and knew well how dreadful it was to get a puncture and asked if she could drop me off somewhere. (There is an unofficial 'policy' within the biking community to support fellow bikers in trouble). She duly did at what I thought was the nearest garage, and I then gratefully accepted. It turned out it was no longer a garage but instead a car wash, and for the 2nd time that day I accepted a lift from a stranger - one of the staff at the car wash, who had a portable air compressor and who took me back to my bike and filled up the errant tyre with enough air that I managed to get to the garage I take my car to, which was on the way home, and I was able to scrounge another tyreful of air to get home.
So to answer the OP, I actually don't know what I'd have done in your scenario!

This may have been genuine kindness, but it doesn’t matter what age or gender you are, you should never, ever get into a car with a stranger. This is not something new. Even in the 1950s, when I was a child, there were predators out there, as police records show.
Be safe, don’t accept a lift from a stranger.

Nearly 50 years ago I was travelling along a dual carriageway with my two year old and 5 month old baby when I had a puncture.
No roadside insurance or mobile phones, so I got out with the children and started to walk along the grass verge. A car stopped and the man said hop in. I did and thanked him effusively. He dropped me off at the next exit where there were shops and a phone box. I often thought afterwards I was very foolhardy!

HelterSkelter1

What a tricky decision. Probably best to refuse. But I expect it was offered out of kindness assuming you are 50+.
But having watched Boat Story recently I would say I would have refused as well!!

Ooh, what's Boat Story, and which channel is it on, please?

I offered a man a lift home the other day as he was walking with shopping bags and a walking stick. It wasn't out of my way much and he was grateful. Just though I would struggle walking with shopping.

Years ago, when my mum was here for a visit, she was out for a walk one day. A car, full of young men, stopped to ask her directions and she had to tell them she couldn't help as she didn't actually live here but was visiting.
Then the young fella driving asked her if she'd like a lift back to my house?
She said she was fine, thank you, but added, "Where would I have sat if I'd said yes? Would I be on someone's knees or they on mine?"
The lad had forgotten his car was full, but they had a good laugh about it and went on their separate ways. When mum told us, we were amazed but also found it rather hilarious!

I would have refused but if it was a woman I would have accepted
It really upsets me when I see children walking home in torrential rain or hail and I can't offer them a lift in my dry warm car
I know if I did my car reg number would go straight to police and I would expect a knock on the door. But when I was a child everyone would stop if it was raining hard and give children a lift.

You did right but it is sad when the man in question could have just doing a kind act. We sold a phone and last night the young girl came to the door and my husband asked her in. I went into the hall and laughed and said you shouldn't come in with strange men! If I had been her would have stayed on the door step. Sad world we live in to have to think like this.

I would never take a lift from either a female or male ..you really cant trust anybody .. I think Myra Hindley was in the car with ( cant remember his name ) when they snatched their poor victims ..

She was.
Ted bundy wore a cast on one leg in order to get "help", too.

My Husband offered a lift like this once snd the lady gratefully accepted a lift. I told him never to do it again - she could've made any allegation about him and the police would have acted upon it.

I have often felt like offering someone a lift in bad weather, but I don’t because the person might think it’s odd!

Obviously, it is wiser to decline the offer, whether from a man or a woman and irrespective of their age.

Normally, I would do so too, and advise others to.

However, if I had fallen and hurt myself, or my bike tyre was suddenly flat and it, being a cargo bike, was fully loaded, I might actually accept an offer of help if the person looked trustworthy.

Thinking it over, it would be wiser to say no thanks to the kind offer, and when the car was out of sight, ring a friend who does drive if both the bike and I were hors de combat.

I offered an elderly lady a lift in the supermarket, she was in front of me and asked if the assistant could get her a taxi as it was pouring with rain and she only lived around the corner. I said I was going in the direction where I lived and if her home was on my way I would gladly give her a lift. We had a lovely chat, and I felt I’d helped someone. I am a lady in my 70s so suspect I didn’t look like a possible axe murderer. If the roles had been reversed I would probably have been wary also. It’s a sad comment on our times indeed.

I've never done this , to much of a scardy cat.
This did remind me of an incident which happened about 10 years or so ago.
I was at the hospital and came across my uncle who I hadn't seen in around 5/6 years , he offered me a lift home which I gratefully accepted . However once,in the car realised his driving was terrible and he had no sense of directions ( to my house at least ! )
In the evening phone his daughter ( my cousin ) who was very angry with her dad as he had promised them he no longer used his car due to early dementia and she didn't even think it was taxed and mot'd .
She took the keys away from his house and told him the car was broken .

Better not to accept a lift from a stranger but I can tell you the story from the other persons point of view.
My son was coming home late from work one night and he passed a girl walking on her own down a dark road. He thought how dangerous it was for her so he reversed and offered her a lift. Not surprisingly the girl refused. When he got him he told his wife how concerned he was about the girl and he couldn’t understand why his wife laughed when he said what he’d done. He thought he was being chivalrous (nice to know I’ve taught him to be) and didn’t realise until the females in the family pointed it out to him

It is rather sad that the time of Hitchhiking has passed. That also now includes Delivery Drivers delivering Cars.
A few years ago I saw one such man trying to thumb a lift. Not doing much that day, I stopped and picked him up and we had a discussion about the demise of Hitchhiking.
He said the problem was that he was always regarded as a potential Serial Killer. I replied STATISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
He looked at me as if I was mental and I carried on - WHAT TWO OF US IN THE SAME CAR.............

not exactly the same but from the perspective of somebody who offered a lift to 2 school kids. The train would stop at the end of the 2 lanes quite often and return down the track if running late rather than proceed to the next 3 stations which ran on a single track . i got used to that unplanned change so I parked at the station where the tracks changed. when there was an announcement n that the journey would be cut short I offered to give a lift to 2 teenagers who could not get home within the next hour. the look they gave me was awful - you would think i was an axe murderer or a deviant of another type. i will never ever offer people a lift again as I was made to feel so totally wrong .

I’d certainly have refused, but I won’t even go in a taxi alone.

I did stop to offer a lift to a man last winter. Dark, horizontal rain, freezing cold and he was walking on the road. Only a steep grass verge, no footpath. I stopped, asked if he was going into the town. He replied no, but thank you for stopping. I asked where he was going- to hospital to visit his wife. No bus route and his car had died that day. I took him to the hospital and explained to a staff member he had no transport home. Don't know if anything was sorted out for him but so glad I stopped. Fir the OP, I wouldn't accept a lift from a stranger.

I’d have said thank you I’m fine then took photo of his reg number. Don’t be fooled thinking because older got less chance of any thing happening to you. My aunt was raped at 73yrs old by an immigrant he offered to help with shopping and she said she was fine he followed her home. So no say no think of the worst nowadays not of the nice

4allweknow

I did stop to offer a lift to a man last winter. Dark, horizontal rain, freezing cold and he was walking on the road. Only a steep grass verge, no footpath. I stopped, asked if he was going into the town. He replied no, but thank you for stopping. I asked where he was going- to hospital to visit his wife. No bus route and his car had died that day. I took him to the hospital and explained to a staff member he had no transport home. Don't know if anything was sorted out for him but so glad I stopped. Fir the OP, I wouldn't accept a lift from a stranger.

You wouldn’t accept a life yet you give a life to someone who could have done anything to you