Reham Al Azem | Special to the Fitzhugh
There is no more affordable way to travel across Canada than sharing a ride.
It is a necessity for many, because apart from expensive and slow transportation in Canada, there are not many options for travellers. Accordingly, some people’s travelling choices are limited to carpooling or hitchhiking, especially those who need a ride to remote towns in the Rockies.
Whether you carpool or hitchhike, you save time, money and you share adventures and new stories with others. But is it safe? Is it legal?
Austrian Daniela Liebethat, who lived in Alberta and B.C. for a year, said she definitely preferred taking the bus or train, but most of the time it was not possible to go from Alberta to B.C. because of the lack of their services.
Consequently, she used to find a ride online to make her way, and that led her to positive ride sharing experiences. Liebethat said she had a great experience with a ridesharing platform called Poparide and she feels safe with it as she can see the profile picture, learn a little about the person she is going with and transfer the lift’s payment upfront. She said she has met a lot of nice people through this website and some of them became friends afterwards.
But Liebethat’s experiences of ridesharing were not always positive. She said she used Craigslist a couple of times and could immediately find a ride, but got some bad offers.
“People telling you, I can give you a ride, you just have to do me some sexual favours,” Liebethat said.
She said that happened to her quite often on her Craigslist posts, so she never went with somebody on Craigslist and did not use the platform again.
There are a lot of groups on Facebook where you can easily find a ride through, however, Liebethat said she has had bad experiences with that, too.
“I got into a situation where somebody wanted to talk to me about sexual experiences and I had to listen to this person for three hours about this stuff because I was really worried, otherwise, this person would do something bad,” Liebethat said.
There was no possible way for Liebethat to get out the car because it was in the middle of winter, below 35 degree celsius, and there was nobody on the road. Besides, she had to get from Alberta to B.C.
Liebethat met the driver through a Facebook group, Jasper Ride Share, and they talked and messaged each other a couple of times. She said nothing looked worrying and everything seemed okay, and when she saw him, he seemed to be friendly and he greeted her boyfriend.
“I would not have gotten into his car if I had felt something bad,” Liebethat said.
Although the driver did not harass her, Liebethat said it was really bad communication for three hours - and at the end of the ride, he thanked her for listening to him and wished her a nice day. Liebethat believes she did the right thing by listening to him because otherwise, she does not know what could have happened.
Liebethat said she did not report the incident to the police because she thought she would be blamed for using a Facebook group to look for a ride with anonymous people.
Kim Ngo, a former Jasperite who lives in Saskatoon, talked about her experience sharing rides when she travels. She said she always uses the Poparide app, as it allows her to know the driver and the passengers. Accordingly, she feels safe and ends up having an awesome experience.
“I would always be alert and vocal,” Ngo said.
Should hitchhiking be illegal?
Ngo said while ridesharing can come with dangers, she believes hitchhiking is much worse.
“For hitchhiking it is worse because you are often vulnerable and on the highway,” Ngo said.
Ngo said hitchhiking should be illegal.
In Alberta, there is no legislation regarding hitchhiking, however, a number of municipalities including Jasper have created legislation that prohibits hitchhiking.
In Jasper, the municipality has a bylaw that states, “No person shall stand upon or walk along a roadway for the purpose of soliciting a ride from the driver of any vehicle.”
The penalty for soliciting a ride on a roadway is $30.
The RCMP does not recommend that anyone hitchhikes because it is not considered safe from their perspective.
Corporal Deanna Fontaine, media relations officer for Alberta RCMP, said: “If someone were to choose to do that, it would be at their own risk.
“Although being with another person may reduce some of the risk, it's still something that carries with it a certain amount of risk.”
She said areas like Jasper, along highways and through remote towns, have limited cellular service, reducing your ability to call for help if something did happen.
Liebethat said she never stood on the street and hitchhiked because she was suspicious from hearing stories about women who were sexually harassed, went missing or even killed.
“I never get into a car with a person I haven’t talked to before,” Liebethat said.
“You cannot make yourself safe in such a situation, it’s not possible.”
Simultaneously, she thinks that hitchhiking should not be illegal because many people can’t afford a car and with the shortage of transportation services, it’s a problematic issue for many to get from Alberta to B.C., especially for women.
“Women with no money, mostly women I would say, are in a situation where they can’t do anything about it, so they [are] kind of pushed into a situation [where] they have to hitchhike,” Liebethat said.
Liebethat believes that making hitchhiking illegal would punish them for something they can't do anything about and it would not solve the problem. She said she thinks it would be better to have more buses and trains running, despite the political and economic situation and the far distances.
According to the RCMP records, between May 1, 2019 and today, there were a total of three complaints in the Jasper area. In one complaint, a hitchhiker reported to the police that they felt unsafe with the driver. The other two complaints were reported by drivers who were concerned for the safety of the hitchhiker on the side of the highway.
Fontaine said: “I do see there are circumstances where it’s not so black and white for people who do end up hitchhiking, but for me as a police officer, I just hope they can do it in the safest way possible.
“If you actually have to, then reach out, text somebody you know, tell them where you are, take down the licence plate of the vehicle, ask for the driver, do what you can to protect yourself.”
Fontaine said people getting a ride should tell the driver of the measures they have taken to discourage the driver from “doing anything stupid”.
