I hitched for nine months in New Zealand, and loved every minute of it. Never felt uncomfortable, had a lot of fantastic conversations.
Full disclosure, a woman was raped and murdered while hitchhiking, only a few km from a town I was staying, while I was there. But I was out hitching the next day, and still had no trouble. I don't know what moral to draw from that.
Still, if hitching comes back to the States, I'll be nothing but pleased.
The same moral you get from living in a region (city, state, country, etc.) where serious crimes happen: Unlikely things occur.
The same reasoning that says the dice (2d6) can come up twelve even though there's only one way for that to happen says you can be killed hitchhiking, or picking up hitchhikers.
Full disclosure, a woman was raped and murdered while hitchhiking, only a few km from a town I was staying, while I was there. But I was out hitching the next day, and still had no trouble. I don't know what moral to draw from that.
Still, if hitching comes back to the States, I'll be nothing but pleased.