<p>Is it hard to get around without a car?</p>
<p>this is what it says on a student review website about transportation at TU</p>
<p>The VIA bus system is neither free or convenient. There are two bus stops located right outside the Trinity campus, but the routes are very erratic. Changeovers are often necessary, and sometimes it is just cheaper to pay your friends gas money for giving you a lift. Most students get the impression that buses come and go from time to time, but they never really know where the buses come from or disappear to. Mostly, buses play the role of large inanimate objects that drivers curse at when they get stuck in traffic. Downtown has a trolley system that is fun for tourists, but again, it is not the most convenient way to travel for people who are in a hurry to get around. Trinity students generally tend to regard the bus as a mysterious harbinger of black smoke and bad smells to be avoided when possible and approached with caution.</p>
<p>If you don’t have means to a vehicle, the best advice is to make friends with someone who does. It’s more fun than riding the bus anyway, and even if the two of you get lost, it will take less time to ask for directions than to figure out the bus routes, and then hope for them to get you there on time. Parking is not difficult to find, though it won’t always be free. The bus system should really only be used by the adventurous spirit who has an afternoon to kill. Even then, it’s still more fun to explore the city on foot anyway.</p>
<p>during our visit last fall, several students echoed that there are enough students with cars that getting off campus is rarely a problem. the Quarry, a shopping, dining outdoor mall is only 5 minutes away, downtown about 15 minutes.</p>
<p>I'm going to be brutally honest - I'm a first year without a car here, and it's a nightmare if you don't have a car. Sure, you can bum rides off of friends, but you're at their mercy.</p>
<p>Unlike more "enlightened" cities like boston or washington, d.c, getting around san antonio is almost entirely dependent on having a car. the buses are okay and cheap, but if the very nature of the city and how sprawled out it is means you'll have to do some walking sometimes and there won't be buses to everywhere you want to go.</p>