A study investigating hitchhiking in northern B.C. could include research in Smithers and Hazelton if a UNBC professor can secure more funding to expand the project.
Gender Studies Professor Jacqueline Holler, who is based in Prince George, has been researching hitchhiking in northern British Columbia since 2012.
Through an online survey which asks women questions about their experiences hitching a ride, the professor has been investigating the reasons why people do it.
Her work was one of two pilot research projects conducted in collaboration with the RCMP, who provided Holler and another researcher with data about the hitchhikers they came across through their police work.
The second project, coordinated by UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management instructor Roy Rea, collaborated with freight companies to identify when and where people were hitchhiking.
That research provided truck drivers with GPS technology so they could click a button to indicate any time and place they saw a hitchhiker.
Both programs were initiated by the RCMP as a recommendation of the 2006 Highway of Tears Symposium Recommendation Report.
But Holler’s pilot project is complete and, although she said the research had already collected valuable data to help guide hitchhiker education, more work is needed to reach a broader cross-section of the community.
She said the online survey had failed to reach some demographics because respondents who had access to online services were more likely to be in a better financial situation and have higher education.
“We’d really like to hear from people who are in vulnerable economic positions and are hitchhiking, and we’d like to hear from a more representative group of folks than we have,” she said.
“We’re missing a large number of people who are hitchhiking and I’ve got a long list of people who want to be interviewed, they don’t want to do the online survey.”
The planned expansion of the program would include interviews and a focus group in the Hazelton and Smithers areas.
To do that, Holler needs more funding, which she said she would use to re-publicize the project to find more interviewees.
Her first priority would be to interview those people who had expressed interest in sharing their stories but did not want to do it online.
“Maybe it’s a wild dream, but I have a dream of actually taking a dedicated van on the road and doing a large-scale road trip where we interview in communities,” she said.
In the meantime, Holler said her findings had already drawn interest from the RCMP, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and municipalities including the Town of Smithers.