Boardwalk is close to UCF and at a great location for students travel without a car.
If you are about to move into a UCF apartment, you may be asking yourself if a having a car is worth the trouble? Typically, living near a college campus means public transportation is fast and readily available. However, Orlando is a very large city that isn't easily navigable by public transportation. On the other hand, if you are a UCF student living in a UCF apartment, there are some transportation options for you in order to get from your apartment to campus. Here is my take on having and not having a car at you UCF apartment.
If you are moving into a UCF apartment, especially apartments for UCF freshman, it should be possible to get by without a car. This is much more possible if you are a student at UCF and will be spending most of your time on or around campus. UCF offers shuttles for students to and from 19 different off-campus apartment complexes and the campus. A few of the lucky apartment complexes are: Knights Circle, College Station, The Edge, Alafaya Club, Campus Crossings, Village at Science Drive, Northgate Lakes, Riverwind at Alafaya, The Lofts, University House Central Florida and Northview. If you are a UCF student living in a UCF apartment, the shuttles provide a quick and easy way to bypass the need for a car to get to class. A downside to the shuttles is that they do not run on non-class days. So, weekends and holidays will leave you stranded at your apartment.
Having a car at your UCF apartment would make your life much easier. Having a car in Orlando is crucial if you plan on traveling to more than just the UCF campus. Orlando is very spread out, so getting from one place to another may take you 30 minutes or more. Navigating the city of Orlando is annoying and time consuming using the public bus system called Lynx. The Orlando Lynx system offers very limited routes in relation to the square mileage of Orlando and the surrounding suburbs. In addition, my personal experience with Lynx was not good at all. The buses were late, dirty and many times, unsafe. I had to suck it up and buy a car in order to get to work on time. Not to mention, meeting up and hanging out with friends near your UCF apartment is much easier when you have a car.
A few alternative options for UCF apartment owners looking for transportation are: Zipcars, bicycling and the UCF Zimride. The Zimride is an interesting program that groups UCF commuters living in the same neighboroods together so they can carpool to campus. This not only saves time and money, but also helps the environment. Zipcars are rentable cars. You do not need to be 25 like actual rental cars. You just have to sign up, register with a fee and have a valid driver's license. Going with the good old bicyle always works, too!