Is it Possible to go to School in Austin or Phoenix without a Car?|117727

I_m not going to be able to take my car with me when I transfer out of state from Richmond,Virginia. I am looking at schools out of state and would like to work, live and go to school in either downtown Phoenix, Arizona or Austin, Texas.

Is it possible to live without a car in either cities and still have a fun life. A lot of college students here in Richmond don_t have cars so they have to make friends with people with cars, and/or only work,play and live downtown.

I lived in Austin for four years without a car. I lived off campus, worked off campus, and had fun off campus too. But you have to be ready for a few things

1) strategic grocery shopping- how much can you really carry without a trunk to load it into? and catching the bus with a load of groceries is NO FUN
2) Buses in Austin don_t run on Sundays, most lines have limited schedules on saturday, and they cut off completely by about 12:30a (except the 6th street to campus bus, woohoo!)
3) You will have to mooch a ride at some point if you want a social life, Regardless of whether you_re a slave to the bus or not. If you are, plan on taking at least an hour more than you would need to arrive anywhere if you had a car. That_s how long it takes to wait for the bus, ride the bus, and get where you need to go.
4) My favorite thing about Austin is the variety of people you will meet there. Funny thing about not owning a vehicle, is most of the most out-there and extreme personalites are walking the street with you (or sitting on the sidewalk) or they are on the bus. Man I_ve seen some stuff go down on the bus.

It_s do-able, but there are sacrifices! Austin also has lots of cabs.

If your living on campus and willing to have a bit more limited experience, then yes you can live at UT Austin without a car. The thing about UT is it has 52,000 plus students so that in itself is like a small town. It also happens to be right next to downtown Austin. You might be able to find a job on campus as there is a need to make the UT campus run, i.e. food, retail, ect.. Downtown is about a mile or 2 from the heart of campus. If you go to St. Eds you will need a car. It is a commuter school in Austin. There are buses you can use but they are not a clear cut mode of public transportation. So yes it is possible, but to do some activities you will find yourself either mooching rides or wishing you had transportation. I would say you can easily get by a few months and not be board,which will buy you time to figure out if you really want and need a car, but I would recommend you have some transportation because all of Texas is known for urban sprawl and you don_t want to be that weirdo who only hangs out on campus.