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I have been driving into Newark for school the past couple of weeks. Now that I finally have a car, I realized it would take much less time to drive in and find parking for a few dollars in a lot on University Avenue. On average, it gives me an extra two hours in my day; I get to wake up an hour later, and the commute is cut in half because I don't have to wait for a train, then drive home from the station at Montclair State.

Listen. I am the farthest thing from a morning person that you could possibly meet. I am a grumpy, lazy,lousy, grouchy little fuck when I wake up, and I have no problem admitting it. This is why my drive to school will dictate how the remainder of my day will go. Route 80 is right around the corner from my house, so I take that route to school. 80 to 20, 20 to 46, 46 to 21, and boom, I'm in Newark. All of these major highways, and I am bound to run into some sort of traffic, but it all depends on how much.

I know I am hitting traffic at the end of 21 when I enter Newark, but this is because there are 4 consecutive red lights, so it goes by fairly quickly. The problem is whether or not 80 has traffic, or 21 has traffic as soon as i merge onto the highway. When I drive to merge onto Route 80, I could tell if there is traffic when I need to drive over the overpass, which either puts me in a good mood, or a bad mood for the remainder of my day, (I am such a stubborn prick). If there is no traffic on 80 or 21, then I'm the happiest man alive!

The reason for this post is due to the fact that Rutgers is a commuter school. With this in mind, I could imagine how many other students go through all of the trouble and frustration that I go through. Newark is a huge city, very dependent on business, and has a train that commutes to New York City, so commuters thrive in Newark. According to University Business, about 90% of Rutgers Newark students are currently commuting. This number is amazingly high. In my opinion, I think it is due to two factors:

1) College students do not want to live in downtown Newark, and ....

2) The majority of students that come to Rutgers Newark are commuters due to its affordable price. If they wanted to dorm, they would go to New Brunswick.

University Business states that this culture is changing rapidly. Not only are more Rutgers Newark students asking to live on campus, but NJIT students are depending on living on campus, as well. Check this website for more information on the housing and dorming possibilities in downtown Newark:

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/cancel-commute