When I was young and good looking, people used to pick me up hitch-hiking

@ninalanyon I see very few now.

One place many would stand was just past the head of the exit road from a motorway service area, apparently ignorant that drivers cannot stop there.

@ArishMell When I was hitching in the UK and Europe in the 1970s we used to queue on the slip roads from roundabouts down to the motorway. The head of the queue being nearest the roundabout. Can't do that now, the police take a dim view of it. It is probably also more dangerous as speeds have increased quite a bit.

In the Netherlands I was sometimes in a queue of a dozen people spaced out on the slip road. In thousands of miles of hitching I can remember only one occasion when the police moved us on. I think that was in the Netherlands and it was all done very politely.

@ninalanyon It's that danger that results in the dim view of it. Slip-roads from service areas tend to be single-lane but a lot of those from roundabouts, especially those also having traffic-lights, are two-laned so cars are accelerating like mad down them to try to beat the one or two in front.

I don't think it was ever legal to stop there anyway, except in emergency.

@ArishMell People were accelerating like mad then too. But however hard they leant on the accelerator it took quite a bit longer to pick up speed in those days!

@ninalanyon Perhaps that's why some service areas are above the motorway level - to give downhill help!

@ArishMell so a ride was out of the question then

@ninalanyon yes...me but no, not lately