Where to start hitch hiking from in north London?

#8: the guys with number plates are delivering/moving new cars. The plates are temporary ones (as I understand it) which are used to drive the car to its destination, then brought back. The drivers get travelling expenses but of course it’s easier (or it used to be) to hitch and save money. These days – judging by some of the responses on this board – they’d probably be taken for murderers/psychopaths…. It’s interesting to see how quickly things have changed. Travellers used to go out of their way to seek out the adventurous and unpredictable – now they want to know the smoothest way of getting from A to B.

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<hr>Travellers used to go out of their way to seek out the adventurous and unpredictable<hr></blockquote>
Some, but not many, still do.

OP - Get yourself onto the motorway network, as #2 suggests. You'll move a lot faster, and even in this day and age, you'll get lifts quicker. If driver is heading off the motorway network, get him/her (it does happen) to drop you at the motorway service station before he leaves the motorway.

However, if you're just looking for the cheapest way between London and Edinburgh, squeeze onto a Megabus. Or look for a cheap rail deal instead. But it might be too late in the day for bargains.

Interesting responses.... Yes there are strange people around but that's where using your judgment and gut feeling about something comes into the deal. If you feel unhappy about someone who's offering you a lift then you don't take it.

I did actually look at booking the train for this trip and tried to get tickets in advance but it was stupidly expensive as all the cheapie tickets had already been snapped up. The idea of Megabus / National Express fills me with dread as I hate coaches. And flying internally in a country the size of the UK should be avoided if at all possible, IMHO.

Drovers_Dog - Cheers for the Holloway Rd suggestion.

#12. it is not only the hitch hiker who would have to use gut instinct, but I am afraid that in the current climate, fewer people are willing to pick people up.

"in the current climate, fewer people are willing to pick people up"

The current climate is whatever you wish it to be. As another poster pointed out, there are no more nasty people running around than before: we've just been given the impression that there are. You can get people to do lots of things if you persuade them that the world is a dangerous place and that other people (and their own instincts) are not to be trusted.

Totally agree with #14.

When I used to hitch (and give lifts) there used to be genuine reasons for doing so, and drivers understood this, and so it was relatively easy.

Nowadays, I would be very suspicious of someone who hasn't got the wherewithal to get from London to Edinburgh at todays ludicrously cheap fares.

I still do give lifts, especially on islands or remote area where there is little transport, and which feel very much safer than London.

#12 - I think you are missing the point. Its the driver who is the more vulnerable one.

#16 - exactly, and that is why I think fewer and fewer people are reluctant to pick people up, no matter how 'respectable' they look!

#14 Actually there is likely to be more nasty people running around if you think about it, given the population of the world has increased over the last 30 years as more people are born at greater rates and people go on to live longer lives with increasingly improved heath care and living.

In addition to that, specifically in the UK there are a lot more people immigrating from Eastern Europe and other countries in much greater numbers that they were 30 years ago. So if you go by averages, with more people there likely to be more criminals now than there was before.

Not so long ago the home office mistakenly allowed a large known criminals to immigrate to the UK and they probably have no idea where many of them are. Makes you wonder how many others are criminals that get through the net without an actual record.

On top of all of that it appears with the worsening capacity problems of jails in the UK the Government is giving early releases to convicted criminals.

You so sure that there are the same amount of criminals running about now than there was 30 years ago?

People hitchhike if they want to. It can be fun. I love coach and rail travel often but they can be boring also at times. Changes in life are good. You may loathe the person who picks you up, you probably won't whether or not he or she doesn't appeal, as the freeness, lack of cost and generosity (which are about in life if are prepared to find them) are likely to have you happy or more balanced and charitable of own spirit.

If a single hitchhiker a year in the whole country were harmed, you would be very, very unlikely to suffer any harm hitchhiking. There are nearly never reports of harm to hitchhikers in the United Kingdom.