Today I picked up a hitchhiker holding a red gas container. I think one should always give a fellow-motorist a helping hand. I picked him up on 275 south on-ramp in Canton. He said he was going to 94 and Middlebelt. I wasn't going that way at all, but he was already in the car and I couldn't just drop him off two exits down the freeway, which is where I was going.
It was odd that his car had run out of gas that far! I asked him about that and he said he came to canton to pick up his paycheck to buy gas. He didn't have enough money for half a gallon of gas?! His boss hadn’t been there and he was going back. He was a slightly overweight, white guy in his late fifties, wearing denim shorts, crusted lips, a heavy breather and seemed extremely uncomfortable. His gas can was impossibly small, maybe 1/2 gallon and empty,
Out of concern for not getting robbed or killed (Really; I am that cynical in Detroit) I kept trying to make small talk and he was very short with his answers. He said he worked as a wall paper hanger or some such. He lived in Wyandotte.
He kept putting his hands in his pockets and searching for stuff. Then he showed me two dollar bills in one hand and another handful of change in the other. "I have four dollars, I think, to get gas. You wouldn't have a couple of dollars to give me, would you?" He asked. "I might. I'll check when I drop you off." I said.
I suggested that I'd take him to the gas station to pay for his gas. He said no, he just wanted to be dropped off at the exit on the corner of Middlebelt and 94. I offered to take him to his car. I asked whether his car was on the north side or south side of 94. He dodged the questions and just repeated that I'd drop him off at the bottom of the exit. Odd.
I dropped him off, fished through my wallet and gave him all my singles: four bucks. He thanked me and started to walk. As I waited at the traffic light to turn around on the westbound I-94, I saw him cross the street and walk up to the on-ramp continuing on to I-94 east. Ha?! "Dude, where is your car?" I wondered and realized that there is no car. I guess he was hitchhiking to Wyandotte, using a gas container as bait.
I don't blame him, nor do I condemn him for tricking me. In fact, I admire his resourcefulness and courage to do what it takes to get by. It's sad to see such crippled mobility options in "Motor City." Really, if I had no car and no one to give me a ride, how would I get from Wyandotte to Canton and back? I guess I'd just walk or ride a bicycle and risk getting mugged or ran over by cars.
Why aren't there economically viable shared-personal or public mobility options that everyone could use? Is this a missed market opportunity or is this a dead-horse of a market? I believe this is truly the single largest market opportunity in the transportation sector.
As for the guy collecting a few dollars in the process, my lesson is: if I am ever destitute, I am getting me a half-gallon gas container.
