People saying 'hello' up a mountain

[Muffrats]

Why do people that have never met or are not friends and do not know one another in any shape or form, say 'hello' when hill-walking but people never say it on a normal street when not hiking?

[sft42]

Could it be that when you indulge in any social activity you see the people doing the same as potential friends or at least equals whereas in modern life anyone you pass in the street in cities could be a mugger or such like so contact is best avoided? other than this in your example it would be relatively rare to meet someone else on a mountain so to say hello is no effort but to stop any greet everyone on a busy street would be nigh on impossible so we choose to ignore everyone instead.

[smithers]

sft42 is spot on as I am proud to say i used to own a mini (car not skirt) and as a sign of mutual respect for fellow mini owners we used to flash (headlights) when you seen another mini around town.

[hal]

Strange isn't it. Like smithers I used to get flashed by other vw beetle drivers. One day I parked next to another beetle in a multistory. When I came back there was a love letter from it to my beetle, tucked under the windscreen wiper!

[evolution]

When two people pass and there is nobody else about, the knowledge of each others presence is undeniable therefore acknowledgement of one another seems necessary somehow.

[johnloony]

When my brother was in Australia he and his friends waved and cheered to the people in a passing car, and they took photographs of each other. Why? Because he was in the middle of the desrt on his way to visit Ayre's Rock, and it was the most exciting thing to happen in about 6 hours. So I suppose it's to do with how frequent it is to meet someone.