Changes

[[Hitchhikers]] often debate about whether to use a '''sign'''. If you decide to use one there are several important things:

* Think well about what place or text to put on it: use well known places, and sometimes also road names can be used or more humorous phrases (''"I don't stink"'').

Buy a pad of A4 plain paper, and use it inside a waterproof, dust-proof transparent plastic folder that you can find in most stationary shops. When writing, insert something under the page to stop the pen ink running through to the page underneath (a document bag is good for this). With a pad of paper, you can quickly flip through pages to find the sign you need. Also, the pad can be a great souvenir of your journey.

''Tip #4'': If you have a chance to plan a long hitchhiking trip in advance, some find using an erasable white board as a sign to be very useful for making big, clear and reusable signs.

If you're hitching in a foreign country, it might be a good thing to express your nationality on your sign. Drivers will think you're more intresting, or will feel sorry that someone who lives that far off has to stand by the road in his country. For example, [[User:Nathan|Nathan]] and [[User:Rocky|Bob]], who hitched through France had great help writing '2 belges' on their sign.

Some hitchhikers think it could be better not to use signs at big crowded petrol stations where it's up to you to ask people, like in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Germany]] on highway [[petrol station]]s (and speaking fluent English/German). It's not very likely that holding a sign will help if you can already clearly state where you want to go and that you are hitchhiking.

Others always have a sign. To show it to people while their still in the car and then ask them when they pass by to pay for their petrol. If they don't understand what's written on it they also ask. And I already have it with me when getting out of a car, so people sometimes ask me right away if they can take me... So it's definitely good to have it. It doesn't have any negative effects so why not use it?

In conflict with the above, a sign only makes sense when you stand next to the road. At the petrol station you could better show the driver on a map where you want to go and so he can show you where he can take you. You even don’t need to speak his language for that. The big problem with signs is that the driver must read it, then he must wonder if goes the same direction, than he wants to know if he likes your face and if he can stop somewhere...but than he realises that he passed you, he is now 500m away from you ...so he will decide to drive on!

If you just use your thumb the driver only has to decide if he likes you and if he can stop his car in this place.

If he is going the right way, you can find out when he stops.

It is possible that destination signs could increase danger as a driver can pretend to be going to your destination. This is not a problem if you are just thumbing for a lift as you can ask where the driver is going. A good compromise is to have a sign with the road name rather than your destination, this allows you to ask which direction the driver will be going.

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[[Category:Equipment]]

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[[fi:Kyltti]]

[[pt:Placas]]