<p>So I know that first year students aren't allowed to park their cars on campus, but I have always heard that hotels will rent out a spot for you to use for a year. Does anyone know about how much that costs?</p>
<p>In fall 2002 the range of yearly cost was $650 or so(Embassy Suites)-$1200 or so (Loews). I imagine it has increased some since then.</p>
<p>The Embassy Suites hotel is MUCH closer to the Commons area than the Loews Hotel.</p>
<p>17th st right near the commons has a bunch of free parking if you don’t mind parking on the street.</p>
<p>Parking on the street is tricky. There are many areas that limit parking to 2 hours during workdays. During a recent drive through the area during a weekday we found few to zero empty street parking spots. Paid options are the 2525 Garage by the Stadium, the Embassy Suites and Loews hotel.</p>
<p>You’ll want to pay for parking at one of the places nearby. The Office of Traffic & Parking is prolific at graciously giving us tickets for not parking in the right “zone”. I don’t even want to estimate how many bar nights they’ve cost me.</p>
<p>Vanderbit, as well as fair number of other universities, has a car rental service called Zipcar now. You can check out their website for more information. I think this is a recent service and they have 2 rental cars available across the street from the Commons. You pay a very small membership fee and can rent by the hour for up to 4 days and gas is included as well as insurance, I believe.
You could possibly park in some of the garages near the medical center on weekends(they are the closest to the Commons) as there are no parking attendants but if you try to park there 24/7 you will get a ticket.
I have suggested to my D that I can drive her home on the weekend to get her old clunker and let her park it there during the weekend and then she can bring it home on Sunday evening. We are local so sometimes that is a good thing!</p>
<p>The Zipcar thing sounds great except it’s TWO cars for thousands of students. If each student used the car for the maximum time allowed, only 6 students would have access to that car each day.</p>
<p>You also have to be 21+ to utilize the service so I guess it eliminates the number of students who are fighting over a car.</p>
<p>You do not have to be 21 to use Zipcar. My D used it quite a bit before she finally got a parking space in March of sophomore year. The problem with Zipcar for her is that if you are even 1 minute late, you are stuck with a HUGE penalty (I think it was $65?) - and you can only reserve in 1 hour blocks, I believe. It’s not bad for trips to the store or maybe to go to a concert, because you’d have a pretty good idea of how long you need it. She got slammed because she used it for an appointment for a medical test - and it took a lot longer than she had planned for. If she could have reached someone to ask them to extend her time, and if no one had it reserved during that time, she’d have been okay. She couldn’t call anyone, though, so she found out the hard way about the penalty. Ouch! </p>
<p>It’s a very good option for most quick trips - just beware the penalty for being late!</p>
<p>Zipcar actually has 5 cars at Vanderbilt and is considering adding more. There are 2 in the parking lot across from the Commons and the others are on the other side of the campus.</p>
<p>Does anybody know if there are any other car rental services that don’t have the 21+ age limit? Everything I’ve seen says rentals only for 21 yrs and up, and you have to pay a ton extra for anyone 18+ to drive.</p>
<p>as a freshman, i used the 2 zipcars on the commons quite often. it was really convenient, but the costs started to add up. i really, really wanted to bring my car up to vandy with me, but the parking is super expensive. the loews charges about $700 per semester and it’s a hell of a walk away from the commons. you’ll be fine without your car, just use zipcar or take the nashville MTA. not many students use MTA, but it’s really great. it goes most places (malls, movie theatres, downtown, etc.) and it’s free by swiping your vandy card!</p>
<p>p.s. you do not have to be 21 to use zipcar. it’s a $35 annual fee, regardless of age. however, if you have a bad driving record, they won’t approve you. idk how it works, but they get with your insurance and decide if they want you to drive their zipcars or not. i haven’t met anyone that got denied zipcar access.</p>
<p>I know someone that got denied zipcar (?) access after mentioning their only desire for it was as a drunk driving vehicle. Hideous.</p>
<p>I parked at Loews this year for $800. It was a walk from the commons, but it was worth it. I LOVED having a car this past year.</p>