@ordinarylives Mine too – lmao; In my mind that means I am doing my job as a parent. I sometimes say suck it up buttercup. ;))
What type of school is this? Urban? Rural? My sons rural campus does not allow freshmen to have cars. You can walk to the little town with some indie stores but that’s it. To get to a Walmart or even drugstore requires a car. You make do.
What school are we talking about?
Because the answer, as always, is “it depends.”
NYU isn’t the same thing as Univ of Wyoming. Dorms aren’t the same thing as off-campus apartment. Does the kid need to get to an off-campus job? Does the kid need a car to get to Target or Costco or grocery store? Does the kid use/need the car to come home from school? Etc etc etc etc etc.
It is pretty pointless to discuss the theoretical usefulness/necessity of cars at some unknown college in some unknown location for unknown purposes.
But carry on.
No cars here. Kids planned ahead if they needed to go off campus.
Both of my kids went to the same school. D1 had a car because she knew how to drive, D2 had a license but she didn’t know how to drive. Both of them lived off campus, so they had to go to grocery shopping, run errands outside of campus, to and from parties. It was easier for D1, but D2 got around by sharing taxi with her friends or hitch a ride with someone. I paid for D2’s taxi rides and such, but she rarely complained about not having a car.
I have to say, if D2 didn’t have to go grocery shopping, other than going to restaurants/bars in town, she could have gotten everything done on campus. Most colleges do not require or even want students to have cars on campus. I think having a car in school is mostly a want and not a need.
@oldfort How does one get a license without knowing how to drive? 
^^^that’s a bit of a long story. Let’s just say we lived overseas for few years and taking a road test was not a requirement.
Walking and uber. As a freshman my child walked miles on a nice day to go to the grocery store. If need be my child took an uber. My credit card was linked to the uber account.
My oldest still doesn’t drive. He went to college in Pittsburgh and walked or took buses. Now that he’s out in Silicon Valley he does the same, though he’d been thinking about getting a bike when he first got there, he never did.
Younger son went to school near Boston. Took the tube or bus or walked. He can drive, but even at home he rarely does as we don’t have an extra car.
Oldest flew to college, youngest usually took the train, though he took a Bolt bus at least once. (It broke down in CT and it was a scramble to get him and his friends here!)
It really does depend. My son brought his car to school–small city without much in the way of transit and the cost of a campus parking permit was quite low. Mind you, he could have survived without it as some of his friends did. He was about 45 minutes from home and came home for the occasional weekend.
Daughter is in a city. Parking on campus is far more expensive. Some places she would want to go would require paying to park so she wouldn’t drive even if she had a car. She’s used Uber a few times and if she had to wait a few minutes for them to show up, she certainly didn’t consider that enough of a problem to complain about. Not that I would have been very sympathetic if she had complained.
One of the 4 girls in her suite has a car so they have ridden with her to the store, etc. There is a shuttle that goes to Target and such occasionally as well. And there’s a Zipcar-type program on campus which I don’t think she has used.
In the case of the OP it sounds like there have only been a handful of times where a car was really needed. If she has to spend half an hour waiting for Uber a few times a semester–how much is that worth? I don’t know how much the car cost would be for OP. The cost I’d have to pay for my daughter is far more than I’m willing to pay to save her an hour or two a month of Uber wait time.
That said we do still have a car that is “her” car and in later years if the situation changes we would not be averse to her taking it. Good job opportunity off campus, moving off campus, etc. Her school requires living on campus for 2 years so I don’t expect a change next year. And she says she doesn’t really miss having the car.
My kids had cars their senior year of college. Big pain in the neck because they never wanted to drive their car. Once D had a “good” parking space she never wanted to move the car.
But then my kids don’t like to drive. S in the winter will drive 1/2 mile to the train station and takes that to work. D lives 6 miles from work, she walks or ubers most everywhere else. I swear I have the only family where everyone complains about driving.
I will be 21 next month and don’t have a driver’s license! I live off-campus and use public transportation, which has been fine throughout college, but I’ll probably need to drive after graduation and I’m dreading it.
I have one of those. The state of Florida thinks she can drive so gave her a license.(she did pass a test). I don’t think she can drive, and she certainly can’t drive my car because it is a manual, so she doesn’t really drive. She can drive a VW bug size car as long as it is a bright sunny day, no traffic, no highway, no other cars on the roadway.
She goes to the Univ of Wyoming. It can be done without a car. No subways, no uber, but she gets around, usually on her two feet.
My D15 has no car at school. Her college is a bit isolated but they do have buses that go to the nearest town. She uses a shuttle to get to and from the airport, and Uber when she needs to go somewhere the buses don’t run. Her campus has Zipcar, but she’s never used it.
D17, though, will have a car from freshman year on, as well as a bike to get around campus. She has an autoimmune disease that requires regular treatments and procedures to monitor her health, and I don’t want her worrying about how to get to the medical facilities.
Something doesn’t sound right here. Yes, an Uber might take longer to get if she’s in a rural area, but she’s telling you that she’s “unable to get one quickly because of the high traffic of use near campus.” That doesn’t sound too rural, and when they are getting more requests than they have drivers, they send out an alert for more drivers.
I live in highly congested area of a major city and I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 5 or 6 minutes and sometimes as little as 2 minutes. Even in suburban areas, I don’t think I’ve waited more than 10 minutes.
If she’s trying to use Uber Pool, that may be the problem, as some drivers don’t like it, will not accept the request, and she’d have to wait for one who will. Also Uber drivers give customers ratings that the customer can’t see, although you can request it through Uber. http://help.uber.com/h/e9302f73-8625-427f-abf7-dbe7ab25af7d
If it’s really taking 30 minutes for an Uber and she’s not in an isolated area, I’d have her request her rating.
Also, Uber gives you an estimated wait time before you make your request. I walk just about everywhere within a mile because it only takes me 15 minutes to walk one mile and it’s often easier than dealing with traffic and parking. Assuming Uber gives an estimated wait time of 30 minutes and it’s a 5 minute Uber ride, she could have walked there and back in less time. A bike would be even less. I’m not sure why she’s giving you grief.
Neither of my kids had cars in school. Public transportation works fine in Chicago and Providence. Or for an occasional excursion for shopping or whatever, they had one or more friends who had cars.
I’ve definitely had to wait 20-30 minutes for an Uber–I live in a mid-sized city with a lot of sprawl. I don’t find a 30 minute wait hard to believe at all. I also wouldn’t assume that the Uber ride is only 5 minutes. That’s kind of ridiculously short.
That said I also don’t see why this young woman is complaining. Having to wait a few minutes for an Uber is hardly a major problem.
I read incorrectly and thought the OP said it was a mile away instead of “miles.” Thus, my 5 minute Uber ride comment. Oops. 
Scooter (the Razor kind) until it was stolen. Freeline skates and skateboard. Now (senior) has signed up for zip car, and uses it to run quick errands. No car.