Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to say that students shouldn't own cars?

225 replies

carlajean · 23/02/2015 08:42

I'm living in Bristol, which is rolling out Residents Parking Schemes throughout the city (an excellent idea, I think). We have lots of students here, which is great, but many of them own cars. If they didn't, the streets would be considerably quieter. I know that other universities tell students that they can't have cars, and I really can't see why they would need them, and it would be a good way of helping with parking problems .

OP posts:
Backtobedlam · 23/02/2015 09:09

I was going to make the point about clinical placements to. Not all placements will be in the city centre hospitals, some are in the community/rural setting and it's very difficult without a car.

Welshmaenad · 23/02/2015 09:10

I'm a student. I have a car. Not only do I need it for family reasons, I'm doing a course that involves placements, for which we need to have use of a car. Without my car, I can't do my course, and couldn't do my intended career. YABU, and ridiculous.

MrsGlam · 23/02/2015 09:10

I was a student nurse and deffiently needed my car!
I had 12hr shifts in a hospital a distance from where I was living and also did a placement in the community where I needed my car to get between patients!

WhereYouLeftIt · 23/02/2015 09:10

"when I was a student, nobody had a car. "
And that means ... what?

Maybe, when you were a student, there were significantly fewer students, so they could all live a five minute walk from uni. Maybe, when you were a student, students had grants; but nowadays they have loans and part-time jobs they need to get to in unsocial hours when public transport is unavailable. Maybe, the environment that today's students live in is significantly different from your experience.

You must know that you're being really unreasonable to pick on a section of the population just because you want to park your car more easily?

Why do you think you should be allowed to have a car, by the way?

VirginiaWoofs · 23/02/2015 09:11

If you have a car OP, why?

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 23/02/2015 09:13

But then surely any adult should make a case for why they need a car? I rarely use mine, don't need to as we walk to most places and DH walks to work. So why should I be allowed one over other residents?

VirginiaWoofs · 23/02/2015 09:14

Also I work in a bar at the opposite end of the city. My shifts finish at 4. Would you like me to walk (50 minutes) home alone at that time?

DonnaTheKamikaze · 23/02/2015 09:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DonnaTheKamikaze · 23/02/2015 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NerrSnerr · 23/02/2015 09:17

OP, why should a student persuade them they need a permit? What about someone whose retired? They don't need a car surely? Unemployed? Maternity leave? People who work less then a mile from home?

UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea · 23/02/2015 09:17

Students - and everyone else - will own cars and use cars for as long as it is financially and practically expedient. Public transport can be ruinously expensive and inconvenient.

Bristol is using residents parking and other measures to discourage everyone to use their cars less, there's no way (or no reason why) students can be singled out from anyone else.

Remember students are not all "standard" teenagers / school leavers - there are student parents, mature students, disabled students....

AggressiveBunting · 23/02/2015 09:19

Yeah, Cambridge used to ban it- at least, college accommodation wasn't eligible for resident's parking, and the college wouldn't let you park in the college car park unless you had an insanely good reason (like you had to have weekly appointments with a world expert in a rare disease who lived off the grid). Wasnt an issue as the city is small and most students live in, plus it's bloody flat so easy to cycle.

SurlyCue · 23/02/2015 09:20

What a stupid OP.

'Those people inconvenience me so i would like to remove their rights' Hmm

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 23/02/2015 09:20

We would definitely we weeded our Nerr, I'm on maternity leave and DH works less than a mile from home! Probably much less deserving of keeping a car than some of the students on our street.

Mistigri · 23/02/2015 09:22

The problem isn't students but multiple car ownership per property, and families are often just as guilty of this as students.

If you're a SAHM, or a working parent doing a regular 9-5 in a city with reasonable public transport, then you objectively have less need for a car than, say, a medical student working a placement and doing antisocial hours.

SurlyCue · 23/02/2015 09:22

Remember students are not all "standard" teenagers / school leavers

Wouldnt matter even if they were. If they have a license and money to afford a car then they have the same rights as anyone else to have one.

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 23/02/2015 09:22

*be weeded out. Bloody iPhone

LineRunner · 23/02/2015 09:23

Universities can only advise students against having cars. And not let them park on university property.

That's it.

Everyone has a right to property ownership.

Lj8893 · 23/02/2015 09:24

Wtf??

im planning on going back to university this year and will need my car. I live an hour away rurally from the uni and will also need my car for placements etc.

nursing/midwifery and similar degree students will need cars for placements.

Indantherene · 23/02/2015 09:26

YANBU. My DCs were students in different cities, and all told not to bring cars. We are also in Bristol and our road has become a "student accommodation area", so you get seven students in a house built for one family.

Oh, and if you dislike students so much, OP, why live in a university town? what a stupid comment. How do you get away from them? Most people live where the work is.

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 23/02/2015 09:27

At Cambridge undergraduates weren't supposed to have cars. The odd one did but they had to park it so far away that it was barely useful. (Always remember the year I lived furthest out being offered a lift home one night by someone and then walking past my student accommodation to get to where the car was parked.)

The only thing that it would have been useful for was that I played two university sports. We sometimes had to hire cars or do nightmare train journeys in order to compete in BUSA (British University Sports Association) competitions.

VirginiaWoofs · 23/02/2015 09:29

Inda- what do you propose, then, for students who need cars for placements/unsociable hours?
Why do your needs trump the students?

ChasedByBees · 23/02/2015 09:29

What a ridiculous OP. Many houses are subdivided - I lived in a house with 3 other workers for a few years after graduating as I couldn't afford to live by myself so houses with multiple cars is a fact of life now and not just based on being a student.

Some councils restrict the number of car permits per house and you have to pay for extra and I think that is fair.

It's not fair to pick on students as a group. They are adults and have as much right to live their life as you do OP.

MinceSpy · 23/02/2015 09:29

OP so who should be allowed a car then? Why you or me?

Muchtoomuchtodo · 23/02/2015 09:29

OP finds her car convenient and dislikes not being able to park directly outside of her house.

Therefore it's obvious that someone else should have to change their behaviour to make her life more straightforward.

I think that just about sums it up Wink