Longer distance travel often affords students access to higher paying jobs and lower cost housing compared to staying close to campus. But those financial advantages are usually eclipsed by the cost of a new car. Even for a used clunker, the economics of car ownership may not makes sense for a student, although professional development and social opportunities may be compellng.

Location-efficient land use patterns that put employment centers closer to universities, combined with better transit service, can eliminate most of the motivation for car ownership among students, especially those at urban schools. While I worked my way through undergrad and grad school, I constantly re-evaluated the economics of car ownership, sometimes maintaining a car for access to internships far from campus, and other times working on campus and biking/walking for most travel. Unfortunately, none of the major employment centers in the area were transit accessible at the time.

20 years ago, depending on a bike for transportation made me look unsuccessful to most American coeds, but the foreign women didn't seem to care. There weren't many American women in my engineering classes anyway. Today, I see a lot more female American students riding bikes; I suspect the stigma of bike transportation is largely gone among that age group.