As a fan of hitchhiking – could it help with the cost-of-travel crisis?

Often seen as a relic of a bygone era, Simon Calder explains why it could be a good way to combat rising costs – as long as technology can help mitigate some of the obvious criticisms

The author hitchhiking in Nova Scotia, Canada (Simon Calder)

Smart motorways must be abolished. Doncaster Sheffield Airport must be saved for the nation. And we must build more roads. That is the sum total of what we know about Liz Truss’s plans for transport, as set out during the Conservative party hustings, prime minister’s questions and her first address to the nation outside Number 10. None of which, it seems to me, begins to address the current cost-of-travel crisis. Most longer journeys – and many shorter ones – in the UK are made by car. The vast majority use petrol or diesel – for which the price per litre has risen by 50 per cent in the course of a year.

On the railways, passengers continue to be deterred by a fares system of implausible complexity that all too often delivers outrageous prices. I could paper a room with the press releases I have received from the Department of Transport over the decades, promising reform of a system that everybody knows is broken. Yet no one has been bold enough to change it. With national rail strikes so frequent that they feel part of the rhythm of travel disruption, passengers are being actively discouraged.

Aviation, meanwhile, is in a holding pattern after the shambolic summer peak, waiting for the turbulence of high fuel prices plus the weak pound to strike as “hedges” unwind. Passengers must get used to higher fares and fewer flights.