Commuting

I commute to Stony Brook 4 days out of the week and I think everything would be a lot easier if I dormed here. Dorming doesn't make sense, however, because I live so close to the school and commuting does save me a lot of money. I do not have to pay the extra couple of thousand of dollars to dorm, but I do have to pay for gas every two weeks.

The roads from my house to Stony Brook are filled with potholes. Every road that I travel on has at least 5-10 and the roads are all broken up. I try to avoid them safely if possible, but every time I drive I feel like my car is going to fall apart and I'm going to get flat tires. I recently just paid a couple hundred dollars for two new tires but every time I drive to school, especially on Stony Brook road, I can't help but feel that I'm going to shell out even more to replace them. Last spring, there was a lot of construction done on the roads in St. James to repave them but a new section of potholes seemed to have popped up. Hopefully this situation can be fixed once the spring arrives.

Driving to school on Monday was a mess, to say the least. The south P lot was filled with cars parked wherever their owners felt like parking and it was barely plowed. The ground was still filled with snow and slush which made it very messy, yet people still feel the need to go 50 mph+ weaving in and out of the narrow lanes. There were rows of cars parked in the middle of the lanes where you drive, outside of their reserved parking spaces. The rows went from one side to the other with no space to turn at the designated stop sign. There were cars sticking halfway out of their parking space because piles of snow were blocking most the space. It usually takes me a while to find a parking spot but today it took even longer.

Once you finally find a parking spot, you have to wait for a bus that is usually always filled to capacity. When I first transferred to Stony Brook last year, everyone said how you would never have to wait long for an express bus to come. There are times where I have waited at least 15-20 minutes for the buses with tons of other people taking up the entire sidewalk resulting in being late to class. I am grateful that I do not have to pay for a parking space like at other lots such as the stadium or parking garages and that a bus actually takes me from the parking lot to campus, but it does get frustrating.