Weisel: Weight your options before bringing a car to campus

You’re waiting at the bus stop, trying to get to the grocery store, and the bus isn’t coming. When you finally get there and then proceed to struggle with a handful of bags on the way back, you might start thinking to yourself – is it time to get a car?

This is the question many students might be asking themselves as they return to campus for the start of another semester at Pitt. When considering whether or not to have a car during the school year, each student must weigh concerns surrounding money, perceived personal need and parking.

Money is obviously the first and biggest factor to consider when thinking about having a car with you at school. Unless you use your grandma’s old clunker — the one that made you the cool kid with wheels in high school — car payments will be an obvious reality for a few years. Additional maintenance costs will be expensive too — approximately $40 to fill your gas tank every few weeks, another $50-$100 or so a month for insurance and a monthly parking lease or $20 for a residential parking permit. A recent AAA study put the average yearly cost of this and other maintenance to $8,946 a year per car — obviously no small charge for college students.

A car will, however, also remove some costs as well. Once you graduate and can no longer ride public transportation for free, a car saves you the cost of a bus pass, which in Pittsburgh costs $1,608.75 annually. If you live far away from the city, it’s usually much cheaper to drive back to your hometown than to fly or to take a bus. I’m from the eastern side of the state and a round trip Megabus ticket usually costs me about $80. If I drive myself and three other people roundtrip, I only end up spending around $30 or $40 for gas and tolls, cutting the cost in half.

When weighing these financial issues, you must also consider your employment situation. If you have a job, how often are you working during the school year? Is it enough to cover the cost of keeping a car? Or are you only working enough to cover living costs? Would you need to get a second job? Or even a first? You don’t want to be drowning in debt due to auto payments when you might already be drowning in student loans.

Another aspect to consider when deciding whether or not to have a car is where you frequently go. If you don’t travel outside of Oakland or the surrounding neighborhoods, a car might not be necessary — public transportation will do. Squirrel Hill and the South Side take at most only fifteen minutes to reach by bus. If you are still on a meal plan at the University and are living on campus, you won’t need to go grocery or furniture shopping, and therefore, won’t be struggling to get a sofa onto a city bus.

But if you have a job in one of the outer neighborhoods of the city, a car might be the easiest and most convenient form of transportation. You’ll save time by driving yourself instead of waiting for a city bus. A car also makes it easier to take boring trips like Target and groceries during the week and save time for fun ones on the weekends, opening possibilities for trips to Kennywood.

The last thing to consider is parking your car. If you live on campus, a parking pass through the University is always a possibility, but it can cost up to $736 per school year and leaves you with nowhere to park during the summer. Another option is to lease a space somewhere near your living place, which will typically cost between $30 to $90 per month. The best option monetarily is to get a city parking pass, which costs $20 a year and entitles you to park in specific zones throughout the city. Be warned, however, that late at night you might be searching for a while to find a space. Parking is a tricky game in the city, and it might not be worth it to play (and that’s not even taking into account parallel parking).

With all these considerations in mind, it comes down to you to decide whether or not you want to have a car with you at school. I was without a car for the past three years but decided to bring a car with me for my senior year, and it has made everything much more convenient for me. While it might not be the right choice for everyone, it’s crucial to make sure you consider all the surrounding factors and make the smart choice for you.

Email Elizabeth at eaw62@pitt.edu.