http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/fashi ... ?ref=style

BACK in Jack Kerouac’s day, when people more often traveled along blacktop roads than through the jet stream, they hitched free rides by sticking out a thumb at a freeway onramp or hopping into a friend’s old heap. Often enough the destination didn’t matter to a hitcher embarked on a personal picaresque. What counted was the ride.

Then air travel became cheap, Baby Boomers grew up, hitching turned into something scary (and illegal in places) and the romance of the highway waned. Fewer people were willing to risk turning up as a news brief with Hannibal Lecter’s name in the headline. More had urgent reasons to reach their destinations on time.

But as one breed of hitchhiker vanished into folk legend, another kind has appeared. This new one isn’t hauling a backpack with a well-thumbed copy of “Siddhartha” in its side pocket or wearing Levi’s with holes in the knees. This new one isn’t contentedly meandering in the general direction of Coachella or Burning Man. more
My hunch is that flying is going to turn into one of those things that only people with a lot of money can do. Back to the roots...