to say that students shouldn't own cars?

[carlajean]

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 .

University car restrictions usually only apply to students living in halls. They don't need a car to get to campus, they are already there. To give them a space to park a car that goes unused for weeks on end is a bad use of limited resources. I fully support disallowing them to park a car on campus, though if they want to rent space elsewhere in town the University can't prevent it.

Students who live off campus but in town can use public transport to get to school, just as employees do, and would have the same rights for town parking as any town resident. Students /employees who commute from out of town would be able to apply for permits to take their chance on the limited number of campus spaces, or deal with the town regulations just like any other driver.

Surlycue Spot on. It is over forty years since Oxford stopped officially banning students from having cars; the ban was widely ignored and completely unenforceable. Yes, they compete for scarce parking spaces, and yes, they have every right to. OP You need to get over yourself.

So people who disagree with you are just being judgey, but you are not by assuming an entire section of the population just don't need a car, but you do, naturally.

^"Going by that logic, why does anyone who lives in a city need a car?"

Well that would work if they never went anywhere else other than within the city!!^

We live in the city, don't own a car. We rent one, occaisionally. But if we are going to another city, there are trains, and busses. We sometimes even take a train most of the way, then rent a car for the weekend. Very simple, and way cheaper than the expense of maintaining a car year round for occasional use. I observe in my friends who do own cars a tendency to use it In order to justify it: i can walk to school pick up on time, but my neighbor cannot. But she complains of being made late due to lack of parking once she gets there. So she organises a need to drive elsewhere first (like groceries) and arrive early and paying to sit and wait. She pays more to sit and wait than I do to have groceries delivered though. So she has spent more time, more £ (petrol & parking and wear and tear on the car) and created more pollution because it is 'easier' to drive.

one of our reasons for leaving the US was the impossibility of travel except by car and the terrible position this puts you in as you age.

I think if the car owning students is that big an issue, move. Because it seems like though you're thrilled with the number of students, you're unhappy with their transport choices. Which are their choices. Not yours.

If it's not that big a problem for you, put up and shut up.

FWIW I live in an area with less than ideal parking, with heavy traffic noise and a few other minuses. But I love it here so the negatives don't bother me. It wouldn't occur to me to think that a certain car-owning group should give up their cars to make my life easier.

AIBU?

Yes, you are.

"No I'm not".

YES YOU ARE!

OP, why does your rights trump the rights of others?!

I am a student and I have a car . I am also 36 and have 2 DC, my university is 60 miles away from where I live. We live in a rural location with no bus service and the nearest train station is 7 miles away. Due to the variable contact hours of my degree, and my family commitments, I need to drive to university.

Please tell me why I shouldn't have a car?!

Oh and I'm not being judgemental - I have read your OP and subsequent posts and I conclude you're being ridiculous!

Cambridge University. The students are not allowed to take a part time job either.

Student nurses, student midwives, student social workers, all students in Bristol who would need cars to get to placements.

Cambridge uni does not do these courses!

My daughter's at Bristol. Next year she's moving into a flat with three other girls, none of whom have a car, so that's one (or four) place freed up!

Has anyone done hidden disability yet?
I think dictating what people can and can't do is ridiculous. Especially whilst living in Bristol which is hardly a bastion of conservative lifestyles. Surrey or Bucks may be more your speed. The naice people would deal with those bloody sponging lazy oiks all right.

YABVU

I'm a student in a university city with a car. I lived in a house with 4 others last year and we were only allowed one free permit issued to our address. If we wanted more then we had to pay around £100 for a second permit and there was no guarantee we'd be issued it. So only one of us (out of the 3 who had cars) brought their car and the rest left theirs at home.

IMO the problem isn't students, it's that HMOs originally built as family homes (e.g. 2 adults plus children, 1-2 cars) are now being occupied by say 4 adults potentially with 4 cars between them and the parking wasn't designed for every household to have that many cars. That's not students fault, and besides it's not only students who live in HMOs so why pick on just them?

OH and I are full time students with a 10 month old DD who goes to nursery on campus. It's a 10 minute drive away from us. Impossible to walk, public transport is notoriously unreliable. What if we needed to get to the hospital? What about when we need to go to the shops, bringing back big boxes of nappies etc?

YASoooooBU

The problem is density of housing caused by HMOs and the number of residents' parking scheme permits issued by councils to a single residence.

I feel your pain OP and whilst I wouldn't be so draconian in respect of all students, there has to be better regulation.

Student houses round our way may have as many as 7 or 8 individuals living in a single house at least half of whom seem to own a car. No-one in the residence will be paying council tax but the students expect the same rights/benefits as the other residents of the city.

I would restrict any house where no resident is paying council tax, to 1 single residents parking scheme permit, just one, at a cost of £1,000 p.a. The room in the house that came with access to that single permit would undoubtedly cost more to rent too.

We couldn't afford to run cars when I was a student, nor did we have enough material possessions to require one to ship them all home at the end of each term. Basic cooking stuff was left in the rented property along with portable TV's etc. Cars were sometimes borrowed from parents or parents came along to drop off and pick-up at the start and end of the academic year. I would say that about 5% of students had a car.

It's today's generation who struggle to get themselves home by public transport 'cos of all their stuff innit.

I think "what if we needed to get to hospital" is the most ridiculous justification I've seen yet on this thread as for why someone needs a car.

I still can't see why a student needs a car less than anyone else really. What is need for a car judged on? Students go to lectures, often have part time jobs, have lives outside of uni, go home/visit friends at weekends... Why would they need a car less than anyone else?

You're very lucky to have your own parking in the area I think you're in. We live in a Victorian terrace in the same area and on street parking is our only option. I don't actually find driving in and around the city too bad apart from getting stuck behind buses constantly!

HMOs can be a problem but households of all types contribute. Next door have 3 cars (for 3 people), having just sold the 4th. The other side have 2 cars for 2 (retired) people. OH and I are frugal and have just the one, despite the fact I work shifts and can leave/arrive home as early/late as 2.30am. Scratch the surface and you find the neighbours have specific reasons for having that number of cars (illness, redundancy from an on-the-road job, caring responsibilities) though, as will many of the students you deride, OP.

Way back when I was a lass, (before the Millenium floods if not Noah's flood!) - there was a student car park in the Uni that was constantly full. Most students walked or cycled or used the bus, but there was a significant cohort who drove from the edges of the city and weren't on bus routes. I was back there a year ago, and there are now 3 student car parks, all full. There was always loads of students parked in roads around Uni too, but most of those are now metered and resident permitted - but still very busy. A lot of those who drove also had jobs, many of them needing the cars for those jobs.

We even had a student driving to school in my final 2 years. She came from well outside the catchment, there were no buses to get her there in time in the mornings and there was no more boarding available (it had stopped when I was in 1st year - Y7 equivalent). I would occasionally get my DM's car to drive myself and my 3 siblings to school in my final year (we usually got a bus, but I had classes after hours so couldn't get the bus home). I also drove to Uni in my final year almost daily for timing reasons (again, DMs car) - having got a 7am bus up and got home after 10pm all through 1st year, and rented student accom in 2nd/3rd years, I was back to early starts and even later finishes a couple of evenings in final year while living at home for financial reasons - so DM very kindly loaned me the car (and I brought 1 DSis with me most days too, dropping her to school en route - the others were in other cities by then).

If there is not enough parking, then there needs to be enough public transport provision before bringing in bans on who can own cars.

Students may not live in the city all year round, but they contribute to the economic well being of the city, buying food, services, often having jobs providing services etc, as well as getting an education. So they have just as much right to move around the city as they need to as anyone else.

My student DS has a car parked in a typical student area in Bristol right now.

Why does he need a car? To do the job he does, which involves transporting heavy/big items around the country late at night. It's also useful for shopping trips to a cheaper supermarket and as he is the only car owner in the flat (most of his friends don't have cars) and it has proven useful in emergencies too.

It's likely DS will stay living in Bristol and if he does what's the difference? He will still live in a shared house, with the same car. The roads might not be becoming packed just because of students, it might also be because of shared occupancy housing or adult children living at home or just that people have more cars.

I don't think a blanket ban on one particular group is a good idea. DS pays his tax and insurance to be on the road as much as anyone else (and yes it's insured at the Bristol address, which costs extra).

cat, we pay a huge amount in council tax, but have no street lighting, no road repairs, nothing except rubbish collection. We are obviously subsidising others who do have these services. It's just the way it is and should be.
Students will be taxpayers one day, we just have to support them now. I guess when you were a student, you didn't have loans of £9-12k a year either.
One reason our DDs haven't learned to drive is because they wouldn't be able to afford to run a car at uni and most universities are in cities where there is reasonable public transport, so we told them we'd pay for them to learn once they're through their studies. This way they will be able to run a car and also won't be having long periods where they're not driving, which I agree with a pp, isn't a good thing.
However, there are lots of people who happen to be students who do need to drive. I can't imagine health care/teaching students etc being able to get to their placements without a car!

Who would decide who is a 'student' and who is a 'real person'? Not all 18-21 year olds are students and vice versa. Not all students live away from the family home. How would you set the rules? What about mature students? How old is a mature student anyway? Student parents? Postgrads?

Is it only young 'incomers' you want to demote to semi-citizenship?

Your attitude is really bizarre OP. Why not just pick any other group that "don't really need cars" - pensioners, SAHM's for instance. You cannot generalise on the needs of a whole group and then prevent their free exercise of choice.

Their decisions can be affected by measures such as parking permits or charges but it is still their decision. No doubt the presence of lots of student cars in residential areas can be irritating, but we live in a free society.

Oxford and Cambridge deter students from having cars because there is simply nowhere to park in what is in many ways still a medieval city centre.

My daughter studied at Oxford just a few years ago. She had her car there in second year, when she was renting a house with other students. They got visitors parking permits and she was able to use these, although she got a few fines for not changing the tickets in time.
She stayed on to do a PGCE and although she was in College accommodation, she had her car and was given a parking permit to park in the car park of one of the education offices, which was opposite her accommodation. Students with cars were useful because they could drive to far flung placements and give lifts to other students as well.
Quite a few seemed to keep their cars at the Park and Ride, for use at weekends.

I absolutely hate being car-dependent - I like living in dense city areas where I can walk or take uber-frequent public transport - but I always had a car as a student because I didn't get to choose as many elements of my lifestyle as I do now and the places I lived were a bit restricting without a car. Including Bristol! Clifton is lovely but a bit claustrophobic without a car.