Hitchhiking used to be common in America. I hitchhiked all though my high school dayz in the 1970s. My parents gave me $5 a week to take the bus; and eat school lunches which were 40 cents a day. I rarely spent money on either one. I wasn't opposed to taking the bus, but I would hitchhike while waiting for the bus, and almost always got a ride before the bus arrived. In good weather, like half the time in Wisconsin, I also rode my bike. It was 2 and 1/2 miles to West High school, and I would try to ride the entire way no-handed, though I only made it all the way one time out of hundreds of attempts. Everyone would pick you up hitchhiking back in the day. Once I got a ride from the Principal of West High. It was fun to get rides in classic cars, I once got to ride in the rumble seat of a Model A Ford.  After school sometimes there would be up to 30 kids hitchhiking, but it would always take less than 20 minutes for everyone to get a ride. There was this rock band called Jo Jo Gunne in the 70s and on one of their album covers they had all 4 band members sitting in the front seat, so we all did this all the time, even called it "going Jo Jo Gunne", and there would be another 4 kids in the back seat.