Do all uni students have cars nowadays?

[ShadowPuppets]

We live in a residential area next to a university. We actually viewed and moved during uni holidays but we knew about half the houses are student lets. Not a problem, they’re generally very respectful if a little naive (one lot left out loads of extra black bags on bin day one week and I passed them on the street as a collective totally mystified as to why the council hadn’t taken them when they’d taken additional recycling the previous week 😆) The odd party but it’s generally predrinks so they’re done by 11 before heading into town.

But they all have bloody cars!! These are normal postwar semis where, if you pave over the front garden (as most have, including us), you can get 2 cars on the drive. Would serve perfectly well if only one or two to a house drove. But all the houses are being run as 4/5 bed sharers (3 beds, plus they use the dining room as a bedroom, and then an extra if they’ve done the attic). So you get 2 on the drive and 2/3 on the road which makes the street a total rat run - cars parked both sides making it super narrow, up on the pavement so you can’t get a buggy down, rucking up the planting on all the verges etc.

We only run one car so other than the precarious driving getting on and off the road, it only really affects us when we want to have more than one guest over, which is basically never (and I guess if we ever do want to do this we’ll do it in uni holidays when it’s quiet). But I just can’t get my head around all these students having cars of their own! If you have student DC do they have their own?

Back when I was at uni late 00s, the only students who had cars were either 1st team sportspeople (who needed to get out to matches), or vets/medics who needed to get to placements and might not be able to use public transport. DH had a car at uni due to a sick parent and needing to get home quickly at antisocial times and remembers being bribed constantly by people for lifts with shopping because they didn’t fancy walking back from Tesco 😂

Has it really changed that much in 15 years? Some of these cars are really nice as well, next door has a 20 plate Ford Kuga and the other side has an old but very pretty Mazda convertible. So there’s every chance this is jealous speaking 😆

This is a commuter town btw - we’re under a mile from a train station which gets you into London in under 40 mins. So hardly the middle of nowhere!

Maybe depends where you live Outfor150? We live in a fairly rural area and most of the villages have no or very limited public transport so most teens (and their parents!) are keen to learn to drive as soon as possible. When I was growing up I lived in a big town and then a major city with plenty of public transport so there was no real need to drive and I didn't learn until my mid 20s.

What do people do if they don’t pass? How do they afford the lessons? Or the car? I am a bit surprised.
Even most parents don’t have a car where we are, as far as I know - we don’t.

None of my friends had cars at sixth form or university. I got a very old car in my final year of uni as I was an AHP student and the placements I was allocated weren’t accessible by public transport.
Where we live now is nowhere near a university but I have noticed that the majority of 17/18 year olds are getting cars when they pass their driving tests. We’re on a relatively new housing development so most houses have enough parking for their parents’ cars but not for 2 kids per house to have cars as well. It’s causing chaos as they leave them parked in unsuitable places on the road and most don’t actually use the cars very often. Bin lorries can’t get around the parked cars so some houses have missed bin collections and the parked cars make it difficult to get on/off drives safely because they park opposite the drive, block pavements or park close to the dropped kerb so you can’t see if traffic is coming as you pull out. It’s a nightmare but the council aren’t interested.

We also live rurally. A lot of kids work part time whilst studying and work a lot over the summer, plus help from family so they can pay for lessons and a car. We chose to live rurally so we knew we’d have to give a lot lifts before they learnt to drive. Now our son is driving, we don’t have to give lifts very often and he gives lifts to his younger sister so it’s worth helping with costs.

My son is in his second year at uni in Leeds. He took his car with him for the first time in Jan of this year. Firstly because of the train strikes - he needed to be back to start a placement on 4th Jan - we live 400 miles away (no trains). Placement was the second reason - cheaper and quicker than taking the bus. Two of them in a 5 person house share have cars. Headingley - full of cars!

Not Leeds (to a PP). I suppose we could petition for permits but tbh with half the road being student lets I don’t think we’d get the support. Like I say it’s not a major problem for us with a drive (although it’s fun watching vans get down the road for deliveries!)

I’m just really surprised how much things have changed since I was a student! Maybe train strikes were a factor but it’s mad to me given how well connected we are - 5 mins walk to the uni, 20 to the train station. They often park across their own dropped curbs and play musical cars in the morning getting them out - seems more hassle than it’s with to me 😂

I was the first to pass and have a car, that was 2001
Just a little Fiat uno. But I was at agricultural college, the shops were miles away (Asda was a good 40 min round trip) and public transport was dire

Dd is second year uni student, she has a modest little car because she is captain of a sports team (seconds team though, not first) and needs to get to off - campus training (within the team those with cars give lifts to the others) and competitions.
In her shared house of 4 she is the only one with a car. In her boyfriend’s house of 8 there are 2 with a car.

I left uni in 2001, 3 out of 4 of us in our house share had cars so I'm not sure it's something new

My DS turned 18 last week and is with his dad this weekend ( my XH). And I've had a message earlier to say they've been out and bought him a car today! He hasn't even passed his test yet 🤦‍♀️. So I guess, if he does pass, he'll be a student with a car when he head to Uni in September... his halls do have good parking ( and given our planned train trip to open day had to be quickly changed to a car journey due to train strikes maybe that's no bad thing, although I'm sceptical about how much he'll use the car once he's up there tbh)

I had a car at uni in. the 90s, I have a heart condition which can cause problems getting about. I needed a permit to access the campus parking. I was the only person in either of my house shares to have one and we used to feel very privileged when we could go for days out.
Also allowed one in Cambridge as a post-grad to get to placements, always with several others in the car. Yes, I needed to see the motor proctor to obtain permission to drive in town!
DS has a car, as a PP mentioned, it is often the only way to get around independently if you live in a rural area. No evening buses here, the road to too unsafe to walk (local school buses are all free as the ombudsman declared them unsafe even at secondary age). All the young adults in the village drive as soon as they possibly can, otherwise jobs, socialising and studying become impossible. (£10 a day bus fare to colleges). Not sure he will take his car to uni next year, I suppose it depends where he ends up.

I finished uni in 2008. I lived at home but had a car and drove in every day, but pretty much all my friends, whether they lived at home or on campus drove and owned cars.

I am a practice educator (social work) in a city with a huge number of students. Most do not have cars. Many do not have a driving licence. It is quite problematic placement wise. To car insurance in my city- as a young student- would be upwards of £2000. I am guessing those with cars have them insured elsewhere and are not the main driver....

My son owns his car, is the main driver and pays more than £2k insurance. Lots of kids prioritise having a car.

our friends

My 19 year old is a 2nd year. No one in his shared house has a car. But they’re in a city where everything is within walking or tram distance.

He wanted to take his car but we discouraged him.

We’re on a relatively new housing development so most houses have enough parking for their parents’ cars but not for 2 kids per house to have cars as well. It’s causing chaos as they leave them parked in unsuitable places on the road and most don’t actually use the cars very often. Bin lorries can’t get around the parked cars so some houses have missed bin collections and the parked cars make it difficult to get on/off drives safely because they park opposite the drive, block pavements or park close to the dropped kerb so you can’t see if traffic is coming as you pull out. It’s a nightmare but the council aren’t interested.

A big contributing fact in those issue though is the ridiculous policy of building new estates without the infrastructure to cope with the number of people living there. I like looking at houses and tend to go to the show homes on new estates, and I can't think of one I have seen where they have actually built the roads wide enough. The developers don't care and just try to cram as many dwelling on to a site as they can squeeze in and it seems the Planning authorities let them - or even encourage them. Any new built residential road should understand there will be times when people have visitors - be that family, trades, or friends - but they just don't build in that space.

Most don't, even though some here do.

Dd and her BF don't, they live in a city and don't need a car, though they could afford one.
When I was at Uni in the mid 90's hardly anyone did, just one friend whose Dad paid for his car and we used to get him to drive us around!

Mine currently at university doesn't drive, but dsd did have a car. My other dd got a car in 3rd year due to covid so she could just go for practicals

I live in the suburbs in a Uni town. Any student who lives on my road has a car - otherwise they would want to live in halls or the town centre.

Neither of mine had/has a car. There'd be nowhere for DD to park one in the middle of Oxford, and DS's student flat was on a street where car ownership would have been more hassle than convenience. A pain in the arse to find a space on the road, and punitively expensive parking if he drove into the city.

No one did in my day but students were generally poorer. Availability of credit, loans and lots of service jobs ( and flow inflation low ingest rates for last 15 years) means it’s affordable for parents and students to run cars.
I bought mine one when he passed and of course he went to a Uni where you can’t take a car.

My 19 yr daughter is student and has a car and so do all her friends.

Well, I am flabbergasted by all this car ownership. DD went to Leeds and none of her friends or housemates had cars, or had even passed their tests, or had had any lessons. But I did just ask her and she said lots of students did seem to have cars, but they lived in posher areas like Headlington.