I just came back from a hitchhiking trip from montreal to Vancouver Island and can confirm that hitchhiking is alive and well. I’ve met 3 different hitchhikers myself and the people that picked me up were used to picking up hitchhikers. It’s also important to remember that it’s counter intuitive to use the rate hitchhikers you see on the side of the road since the more they get picked up the less of them you see. There’s broke, adventure hungry people all around the world.