Many prospective college students face a dilemma that most college students face: whether or not they should bring a car to college.  In most cases, parents strongly encourage their kids to refrain from bringing the family car. As much as students like to do the opposite of what their parents suggest, there are a few good reasons why the car should stay at home.

Financially, it makes more sense to stay off the roads while in college. Attending a university is expensive enough, and adding the costs of a car can just be too much for some families.

The cost would directly affect the student every time that the car needed to be filled up with gas. With gas prices back on the rise, this is hundreds of dollars a month that could be saved. Also, the cost of insurance for teenagers, or young adults, is essentially robbery. Couple that with paying off the car, any speeding or parking tickets, and the gas, then that’s thousands of dollars a year that could have been potentially saved.

Parking is also an issue affecting car-driving students at universities. It is a financial issue, since families will be shelling out a couple hundred bucks every year for parking, but more importantly, it is a safety issue. Most of the time, students’ cars will sit in the parking lot for days at a time until the student has a need to go out. As safe as most universities are, burglary is one of the most common offenses. Thieves know that they have all day to rob cars, and many cars are broken into, and sometimes even stolen.

Another reason not to bring the family car is that students can often become the designated driver. In this case the designated driver doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with alcohol, but the designated driver ends up driving everyone around. Since the majority of students do not bring their cars, the students who do have cars quickly become known for it. Other students will start asking them if they could get a ride to Costco for groceries, or the liquor store for some alcohol. It’s hard to deny friends a ride, especially when the year is just starting and students want to make as many friends as possible. However, it can very quickly become irritating to have to drive students everywhere all of the time. Students are at school to study, and should not have to stress out about something as easily avoidable as driving.

Keeping a car while in college is simply not necessary. It can be useful for going to get groceries or taking a day off at the beach, but it is not necessary. With a little effort, students can research the bus system, which is usually free for students, and get to most destinations. Local bus station websites will give information on schedules and locations, while the university website will often times explain other ways of transportation, such as shuttles, taxis, or school-sponsored buses.

Some students want a car at college so they can go home on weekends that they don’t have plans. It’s nice to go home every once in a while, but some students get sucked into the idea of being able to go home. They use it as an escape for loneliness. In the beginning, no one has friends in college. However, if students don’t use their weekends and free time to make new friends, they might lose out on the opportunity to make friends.

There are benefits to having a car in college, but the cons outweigh the pros. In this stumbling economy, families will need the cash saved by keeping the car at home. Students can survive college without a car, and will most likely be better off and more happy without the pressures and negative effects of keeping the old family car.