Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Having walked (as a tourist without a car) through an American university campus on the day of a baseball match, some parts of the movies are accurate.

The decorated frat houses with passed-out guys on the lawn outside.

The enormous stadium in the centre.

Thousands of people (all students?) wearing team shirts.

Some sort of isolation, there were massive motorways around the university, barely any public transport and little space for walking, which may explain why I saw so few students in the nearby city centre.



I passed frat houses most days during four years of college, and do not remember ever seeing anyone passed out on the lawn outside. I don't doubt that many of them drank too much, but they must have been able to make it in the door while still semi-vertical.

A lot of American universities were built out in the countryside or in small towns rather than in major cities, following I guess the Oxbridge tradition rather than the continental. In many cases they dominate a town that grew up around them, which doesn't always have much of a city center to it. I'm curious to know which city center they weren't found in.


I have 2 daughters at a public US university. There is tons of pedestrian traffic, and plenty of busses. Some students have cars, but parking is very limited. My daughters walk everywhere, or get a bus. Some kids use bikes or scooters.


No doubt especially that part varies, but I checked Google Maps for the university I walked through. There's a half-hourly bus on one side of the campus, and a bus every 45 minutes on the other side. There are several enormous parking garages.

Universities in similarly-sized European cities have at least a metro station, if not two, and many more bus lines.


Are you talking about public transit connections to the university? That’s a valid, but general complaint about American mass transit and car culture.

But almost every university I’ve been to is closed off from cars and walkable. Students walk on campus to get everywhere. Most students don’t own cars.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: