<p>Do a lot of students at Tufts have cars? How much is parking?</p>
<p>Freshmen aren't allowed to have cars. A decent amount of kids have them, though - whether to get groceries, get to work, do trips nearby, or visit home often. Some people who have cars at home choose not to bring them to campus, though, b/c mass transit is easily accessible and that way they don't have to pay insurance.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how much parking costs, but I know that it's prob. easier if you're from Massachussetts. But sometimes it's annoying, b/c depending on your class, you park behind Carmichael, Dowling, or South, and that could be either very convenient or very inconvenient to your on-campus location. People who live on campus that have their own driveways don't have this problem.</p>
<p>Parking is free, public, and unmetered on Boston Ave, which is behind Hill Hall, Hillsides, and Dowling. That being said, it's illegal to park on the streets several times throughout the winter when they think they'll have to plow there, so you would have to find a place for the car during those times, which depending on the winter can be very often. It's also a pretty inconvenient location if you're using the car a lot. As a freshman, I'd say save your money and don't bother. I rarely felt like I needed one. </p>
<p>A lot of people, even upperclassmen, don't bring cars. They're pretty easy to work around.</p>
<p>I saw a tree fall on some car parked in front of South once as I was coming out of the Chemistry building due to a storm. I chuckled a bit because it wasn't my car :)</p>
<p>I was about to say, "that's...awful." And then I remembered that the kid with the Porsche parks outside South, and wondered if maybe it was his car. LOL...ergo, I'M awful.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the kid with the Porsche. I thought I was the only one that was annoyed by that. I think you have to pay a couple hundred dollars for the privelege of parking on campus. It's probably on the website somewhere.
Also most of the streets surrounding the campus are parking by permit only.
Several of the streets like Powderhouse and Broadway are emergency routes and you can't park on them when it's snowing. If you don't need a car, you might be better off without one. There's always the zipcar in Davis Sq.</p>
<p>Has anyone noticed that most people who drive the Porsche Cayennes at Tufts don't know how to park? One year, an '06er (her father is a high-profile benefactor of Tufts, you can probably guess her last name) with a Cayenne took 10 full minutes to park in front of the campus center. It was hilarious and our Schadenfreude was in full-gear ;)</p>
<p>Actually, I feel bad for bringing up the kid with the Porsche, b/c I know his parents didn't buy it for him, he's just good at investing.</p>
<p>As I was walking by Hodgdon about two to three months ago, this person tried to park a BMW very quickly and rammed his tire into the edge of the sidewalk, puncturing it. I smirked in disbelief - I didn't think it was possible to pop a tire that way, nor had I ever really heard a tire pop.</p>
<p>parking info and prices can be found online at publicsafety.tufts.edu</p>
<p>For commuters I believe parking is $240-$250/year and for sophomores and residents it is $470-$480, pretty fair compared to other schools in the area.</p>