<p>Schools I'm looking at aren't always friendly to students who want to have cars. I don't want to regress in the amount of freedoms I currently have, so I want to have a car at my disposal. My thought was that I'd put it in public storage or something, then take it out when I needed it. Any other ideas; criticisms of this plan? What have students in the past done to deal with this?</p>
<p>I highly recommend against this plan. Here’s why:</p>
<p>1.) If it’s in public storage, it’s just not the same as having it parked where you need it. You’ll just be paying for storage and not enjoying the car.
2.) In most college environments that prohibit or recommend against a car, the car will do very little for you in terms of freedom of travel. You’ll just be paying for parking/maintenance/insurance while never having enough parking spots or places far away enough to really take advantage of it.
3.) Those without cars will try to take advantage of you (in actuality, you pick them up at their convenience, it’s you who has to get the car and pay the expenses – jerks).
4.) You socialize and bond with others more when you are out walking instead of isolating yourself in an environmentally-unfriendly chunk of metal.
5.) It’s good exercise by walking/biking and using a bus for longer trips.</p>
<p>On my campus, those people who brought cars usually only use them for long-distance trips (i.e. to drive home); they’ll walk if it’s within 1hr.</p>
<p>while I agree that if the school doesn’t want you to have a car freshman year you probably should listen, if you must have one, I would recommend going onto craigslist and posting about/looking for posts from people who live near campus and are renting space in their garage. If you have to walk more than 10 mins to get your car, it really just isn’t worth having. Does your school’s area have zipcar?</p>
<p>I think the main reason schools prohibit freshmen from bringing cars is so that they can have enough parking space for everybody else. Do some research into the parking situation around your school. Also consider Zipcar. If you have no accidents on your record and if your uni has an agreement with them you can get a membership at 18. It’s pretty damn cheap if you’re not gonna be driving a lot.</p>