To commute, or not to commute: that is the question. With the new academic year starting, discourse begins once again over whether making the journey from home every day is worth the mental toll.
The most obvious issue to cover is finances. The university itself displays in their living costs calculator that staying in their accommodations along with extra essentials, will roughly cost £11,743.20 for 40 weeks.
Unsurprisingly, this amount makes commuting appealing as money could be invested into trips or savings. However, it may be less straightforward than initially thought.
Circumstances can differ on how someone may choose to travel. But focusing on those who may choose to drive, students face rush hours, fuel costs and, a main difficulty, parking.
It is astounding how large the city of Cardiff is and the campus specifically, and yet there is a constant difficulty surrounding suitable parking. With the university priding itself in investing £600 million into upgrading the campus, there is room for discussion of whether a fraction of that should support parking spaces.
While the NCP does offer seasonal tickets to park with unlimited usage for a quarter of the year, it does not justify the £369.10 spent there which could be going into savings like originally planned.
This therefore causes concern as to whether the university should offer parking spaces at a much cheaper rate than near the National Museum, or, whether it should be free-of-charge and included in the facilities offered for students.
Otherwise, it causes a great deal of inconvenience when trying to attend lectures or social events, without the worry of your ticket running out.
I can say from personal experience, that walking into a busy lecture 10 minutes late due to lack of parking for a 9 AM lecture (where all eyes are focused solely on you) is not the position anyone wants to be in first thing in the morning.
So why hasn’t the university outwardly expressed their attempts to make parking more accessible?
Now, we can’t expect miracles. Since Cardiff is the capital afterall, parking will more than likely always be scarce, but it would be appreciated if there was some form of scheme that would provide a safe area to park our cars. Without the stress of a 20 minute walk (when we’re already late due to traffic); without the stress of terrible tariffs; and without the stress of there being no surveillance for safety.
With social events in mind, commuting becomes a challenge when you are trying to make friends. There is no spontaneity when you must figure out where you could park your car or how to get home without spending a substantial amount (unless you’re lucky enough to find someone else’s accommodation to move into for the night).
It is common for freshers, whether staying home or commuting, to feel isolated when first starting out. However, there is a sense of community that comes with belonging to a residence, meaning someone travelling constantly may struggle to feel included, especially without the pre-set group chats that some flats create.
Therefore, it may feel more complicated as a commuter to form real connections.
But in the end, that extra work may be completely fine for most that put up with delayed trains. Even the cancelled lectures halfway through their journey may not cause issues, since improving independence and the responsibility of time management come along with the struggle of commuting.
This means that the answer to the worth of commuting largely relies upon an individual’s drive to put in that additional effort when travelling for studies or socials. While saving some money, students should understand that they may have to pay instead with their sanity.