Necessity of a Car?

byronster · 05-01-2005, 10:56 AM

I'm just curious, I will be attending Case this fall in the 2009 class. I was curious, for the upperclassmen, how many have cars? Is it a necessity? I'm a big biker, so being able to drive to places was kinda crucial, but I can also ride the urban areas.

Thanks
Byron

stargirl · 05-01-2005, 12:44 PM

Most people here don't have cars as we don't like dealing with the perpetual parking hassle known as Cleveland, Ohio. Parking's hard to come by and parking violations are very strictly enforced, and I've never really though it nessecary to have a car myself as in the rare occasion you need one you can always find someone else to bum a ride off of. Upperclassmen definetely have them more but I wouldn't recommend it that much for a frosh at all.
Biking-wise it's still decent around here, if only to go between northside and southside (which is what I usually do). It's also pretty popular to bike down to lake Erie, I've done that a few times, and there are a few nice bike trails through local parks. Additional plus if you're from a more hilly place: everything is much flatter! Woohoo! So don't know if that's enough to pacify your biking needs but it works for most of us well enough.

joev · 05-03-2005, 04:14 PM

The rapid runs right by CWRU so getting downtown is not that much of a problem, but living without a car in Cleveland is SPECTAULARLY boring.

mominsearch · 05-04-2005, 10:04 AM

joev - why? The RTA/rapid takes you everywhere you could possibly think of.

joev · 05-04-2005, 02:35 PM

If you are up at normal hours yes, but the rapid doesn't run all night or to many suburbs. My brother loves taking the rapid, I just prefer a car, its SO much quicker and you don't have to wait, and I hate waiting.

buratino · 05-04-2005, 06:02 PM

Hey Guys,

As a Cleveland native, I would say you definitely need a car to survive. All of the stuff in downtown is nice, but the suburbs especially on the east side (Beachwood, Orange, Mayfield, etc.) have quite a few attractions and points of interest. Rapid is extremely limited and notoriously slow, plus almost everyone drives in Cleveland.

Enjoy CWRU!

Vlad

mominsearch · 05-04-2005, 06:27 PM

I am under the impression that RTA runs to Beachwood, Mayfield Village, etc. Joev - You are right waiting is not so much fun, but I figure that I'm paying a lot for my son to attend this school so his part will be waiting for the bus to take him places

Ctheflute · 05-04-2005, 07:17 PM

I had no problem getting to wherever I needed or wanted to go. There are enough people on campus that have cars to get places if you are in a hurry or if you want to go places that you'd have to transfer several buses to get to. Also, there were quite a few locals that I knew that could get a car for the day if they needed one. As a freshman, I didn't see much of a need to have a car for myself, although as I get to be an upperclassman, I'll probably look into bringing one (mainly so I can drive home for breaks etc.)

kosha · 05-04-2005, 09:20 PM

My husband and I just got back from picking my daughter up from Case for the summer. We were really impressed with how many people were out walking. The Coventry and Little Italy areas were full of people out walking around, and people were walking back and forth to campus. We walked to dinner in Coventry and took the free "Greenie" bus back to campus--the Greenie (which circulates around the campus and then also up to Coventry in the evenings) is even free for non-students!!!...it is a hike up to Coventry, but very doable, and I appreciated knowing that the students are comfortable walking and getting exercise instead of just hopping in a car.

I suggest trying to go without a car your freshman year if at all possible. A freshman is more likely to get to know the campus and the surrounding environment (and get involved in campus activities) if they don't have a car available. Parking permits are expensive and the parking that is available for freshmen is not convenient to the freshman dorms.