Talk:Finland

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The information here simply isn't true. Sure, it might be illegal to hitch on the highway in Finland but no one seems to care. You are not harrassed by the police and the cars DO stop even at the speed of 120 km/h. Although I am from Finland I've hitched more abroad than there. Still, Finland is one of my favorite countries to hitch because:

  • You can hitch anywhere.
  • During the summer you can hitch 24/7.
  • During the winter people are very sympathetic and it's even easier to get rides.
  • People are not that scared (half of the drivers are women).
  • People are very glad to give a ride because they don't see hitchhikers that often.

--Astikain 14:37, 6 September 2012 (CEST)

I agree with Tomi in this case, and I think some parts of the article should be rewritten.
For the future, some guidelines as my opinion:
  • For big countries like Finland, there should be subtitles. Eg. Lapland, Southern Finland and Central Finland are all very different when it comes to hitchhiking and weather related winter hitchhiking.
  • If writers opinions differ a lot and it's sometimes very subjective, just make two paragraphs under two titles. Readers can then try to figure out...
  • It's ok to write personal comments such as "In Tomi's experience motorway hitchhiking in Finland works just fine.". In my oppinion it's not ok, but then I never needed to try. There are enough of service stations in south...
  • Try to make clear what's illegal and what not, but don't say it's impossible for that. For Finnish/German mindset it comes very easy into mind that something that's illegal is impossible to do. ;-) Same goes to make difference with difficulty of something.
There should be some "super safe HH country" badge to add for these countries like nordics and Japan. :-D
-Mikael 17:15, 6 September 2012 (CEST)
"It's ok to write personal comments such as 'In Tomi's experience motorway hitchhiking in Finland works just fine.'". I disagree. The tradition on Hitchwiki is to try to make advice as generalized as possible and keep things simple. Encouraging people to post personal anecdotes tends to create clutter, which is a big problem considering that most readers of the English Hitchwiki are not native speakers of English. Even for me, a native speaker, I hate having to wade through so many individual perspectives that in 90% of cases aren't necessary. CRCulver 17:57, 6 September 2012 (CEST)
I agree that hitchhiking in Finland is super-easy. However, regardless of legal issues, I don't think it's good to propose hitchhiking on the motorways in the south of the country simply for safety reasons. Why take the risk of being around cars going that speed when if you hitch from an onramp you'll get a lift in a few minutes anyway? CRCulver 17:55, 6 September 2012 (CEST)
There was a suggestion by Mikael to add weather related comments to Hitchwiki on Finland. I'd warmly agree on that as I feel some hitchhikers might not be prepared for the fact that the weather is very variable. Noting about the changes of daylight hours might be necessary too. Or am I just being over caring? Antik 17 August 2013