Taking a car to Warwick uni

[shreddit]

DS may be about to choose Warwick for 2022 entry. If so, he would be in halls for first year, then likely to live in Coventry in second year. He would like to take a car, because he is heavily into a particular sport which requires him to regularly travel to training and fixtures. I wonder how practical this would be. I imagine it would be difficult/expensive to keep it on campus, yes? And do the student areas of Coventry have controlled parking, or not?

(p.s. I know many students live in Leamington Spa, but DS is likely to choose Coventry as it will be better for his sport logistics)

Dd is in her second year at Warwick and was in halls last year. She took her car and paid for parking at a church adjoining the campus - much cheaper than parking on campus. She lives in Coventry now and there is free parking on the street - she lives in a very student area.

My ds has done a few athletics events at Warwick university and as I remember there are quite a few car parks on the campus - we parked easily. But I don't know if that was because they were on Sundays, and whether they are closed overnight, for example. However, it sounds from TAmumto that it might be do-able.

If Warwick University students live in Coventry then it tends to be in Earlsdon, Chaplefields or Canley. Some parts of Earlsdon (the roads nearer the station) have resident only parking. Parking in Chaplefields and Earlsdon is difficult due to the volume of cars on the roads as houses are mainly Edwardian terraces and don't have off road parking. Canley houses often have off road parking but Canley is viewed as a less desirable area than Earlsdon or Chaplefields, despite being closer to the university. Parking on campus is limited and expensive but public transport to the university is fairly good from Earlsdon and Chaplefields.

Can't advise re. Warwick specifically but DD took a car for her second year for exactly the same reason @shreddit. Sports training was either early morning or late evening and we felt it was a safer option than travelling on public transport on her own (big city university) in the dark. But if she was going up to campus during normal daytime hours for classes, she simply caught the bus and left the car at house.

There's limited parking at Warwick - I know it looks like the car parks are huge, but demand exceeds supply.

Students aren't banned from bringing cars on to campus, but there's no specific student parking arrangements, so they'd either have to apply for a permit or buy daily tickets. Students (except salaried postgrad researchers and later years medics on placements) cannot buy permits through the staff portal (which is how they are usually sold) - not sure how it's done, as I don't know anyone who has brought a car

I think the situation at a lot of universities is exactly as @Ethelswith has described. I do know that while DD2 couldn't park on campus during the regular day, she had a permit which allowed her to do so for morning (7am) and evening (9pm) sports training so if your DC is representing the university at a sport, it's certainly worth looking into whether any special arrangements are in place.