As a freshman, getting around campus without a car is fine. I can always walk, and the P2P never fails.
But any trips that involve leaving UNC is another story.
When I went home for fall break, my parents fortunately shuttled me both to and from my hometown of Charleston, S.C. Over Thanksgiving break, my dad was driving back from New York and could give me a ride. I was on my own getting back.
That's when the nightmare began.
The only other fellow UNC student I know from Charleston was coming back a day after I had class I could not miss. Everyone else was either staying in North Carolina or coming back via train, plane or an automobile going elsewhere.
In the end, I was able to arrange a trip back the night before I had to depart. A friend from high school was going to drive me from Charleston to Elon, where another friend picked me up for the final leg of the trip. Thanks to massive traffic outside of Charlotte, I made the five-hour trip back to Chapel Hill in seven-and-a-half hours.
Thanksgiving has not been my first run-in with the difficulties of getting a ride. Lack of transportation kept me from seeing the Foreign Exchange concert in Raleigh. Getting to South Point was only possible after some serious planning through the Triangle Transit's Web site.
Mass transit may be green, but it makes me red with frustration when I can't figure out how to get where I need to go.
Junior Christine Tully told me that she did gain something from having rely on public transportation to get around.
"I learned to use the buses pretty well," she said.
Begging upperclassmen or fellow freshmen with cars to be my chauffer is no less aggravating.
"I don't want to be a nag," said Ashley Arrington, a freshman from Atlanta.
If I do manage to get a ride, payment etiquette is a tricky part of my journey.
Sophomore Courtney Laster told me that she skips payment by hitching rides with people already going to the store.
Whether it's riding the bus or riding with a friend, I can't wait to put this behind when I get a car of my own.
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