How useful is it having a car?

In coming freshman - wondering if it is beneficial to bring my car and keep it there. Thanks in advance!

It depends largely on your living arrangements. If you’re living right by campus, it isn’t really necessary. The public transportation is great and there’s a ton of stuff right around campus, so you rarely need to go too far. Keep in mind that parking a car is usually pretty expensive, and most of the parking around UIUC is metered.

For a freshman living in the dorms or cph, no, not beneficial at all. First, student overnight parking lots, are all at the edges of campus. Second, once word gets around that you have a car, you may as well work for Uber. However, it is convenient to get to and from home on the weekends when you have a bit of spare time, but they charge an awful lot for the “convenience”.

@comfortablycurt @Balthezar - thank you very much!

they say having a car in uiuc is like have a boat, you don’t really need a car but you want have a friend that has a car, just like you want a friend who has a boat.

probably you will have a lot people who want to be friend with you, if you have a car… i don’t know

Having a friend with a car is useful, but not necessary. The public transportation is great. Zipcar is great if you’re ever in a situation where you genuinely do need, or would at least greatly benefit from having a car. $70 annual fee, and only $8.50 an hour. There are cars parked all over campus that you can just walk up and use. This can be useful for things like grocery shopping or day trips to go hiking and things like that. $69 a day seems like a lot, but split it between 4 people and it’s not so bad.

http://www.zipcar.com/uillinois