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[[ImageFile:Seattle skyline.jpg|thumb|240px|left|Downtown Seattle skyline as seen from West Seattle.]]

===University District===[[ImageFile:University_District.png|thumb|200px|left|Location of the University District in the city of Seattle.]][[ImageFile:Theave.JPG|thumb|240px|right|The Intersection of NE 45th St and University Way NE (the Ave.).]]The U-District is home to the University of Washington, UW Medical Center, and one of the largest neighborhood populations in Seattle. This is a good destination for hitch hikers looking to make connections or just a quick ride. It is also also widely known throughout the city to be a center for a large transient population. Most hitchers, homeless, buskers, gutter punks, and what-have-you usually center themselves around University Way, also know as "The Ave." In turn, these people have come to be known by locals as "Ave Rats." The U-District is an ideal place for hitch hikers due the wealth of clean public restrooms on the University of Washington campus, the [http://www.udistrictfoodbank.org food bank] on 47th St and 15th Ave (One block east of the Ave), and there is a semi permanent tent city directly adjacent to the food bank. There is also an abundance of diverse foods, grocery and drug stores, and bars for those of you with a bit of change in your purse. You can also crash in Odegaard Undergraduate Library if you look enough like a student.

===Capitol Hill===[[ImageFile:Capitol_Hill.png|thumb|200px|left|Location of Capitol Hill in the city of Seattle.]][[ImageFile:caphill-calanderson.jpg|thumb|240px|right|A partial view of Capitol Hill with Cal Anderson Park in the foreground and Downtown in the background.]]

[[ImageFile:Dicks.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Dick's Drive-in on Broadway.]]

=='''Hitching In'''==Seattle is a big city, so it is a common and popular destination for many drivers, regardless of the time of day or night. Hitchhiking in Washington State is illegal along the freeways, but not along on-ramps. There are "No thumbing" signs along I-5, so if your ride can't take you all the way to Seattle, make sure that he/she at least drops you off at an off-ramp, near the next on-ramp. There are also many good rest stops along I-5, which can make picking up a ride easier. If you are coming from the south you can easily catch a bus into Seattle if need be once you hit Tacoma. Busses depart from downtown Tacoma to downtown Seattle frequently and it is a 30 minute ride. Coming from the north, you can also catch busses from Everett to downtown Seattle frequently.

=='''Hitching Out'''==

[[ImageFile:4thand5th.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Southbound I-5 onramp at NE 45th St and 5th Ave NE.]]*You can take a [http://transit.metrokc.gov bus], [http://www.soundtransit.org express bus, or train] out to a suburb (Federal Way in the South is good and Everett in the north is good as well) and try to hitchhike from there. This is the most common way out, since hitchhiking out of big cities is not popular. However, trying to hitchhike out of a low-income or high-crime suburb or city (such as Tacoma or White Center) may be even harder than hitchhiking out of Seattle city-proper.

*There are exceptional on-ramps to I-5 in the University District, from within Seattle. [[User:amylin| amylin]] got a ride from Seattle to [[Portland]] from the on-ramp to I-5 South at NE 45th St & 5th Ave. There is a busy intersection at this point, in which vehicles stop and make turns onto the on-ramp, from 3 directions. There is even a nice spot for vehicles to pull into and pick up hitchhikers! The onramp going North at this same location is also recommended, and many hikers use it to get to [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]] (There is also a Vancouver, Washington. To minimize confusion all road signs for Vancouver, British Columbia are labeled "Vancouver, B.C."). The only drawback to this location is that there are frequently homeless people, who beg for food or money, nearby, and drivers may be reluctant to pick up hitchhikers in the presence of so many "unpresentable" people.