1)The opportunity that I am going to pursue is that it can be nearly impossible to find a place to park your car on campus. There are a lot of parking spaces, sure, but there are so many restrictions that makes it so you cannot leave your car there for a long period of time. Most of time, students have to move their car to avoid getting ticketed. I did not end up bringing a car to UF just because of how hard it is to find parking, and it did not seem like it was ultimately worth it in the end.
2)Students at the University of Florida have a difficult time finding convenient and reliable parking because of the restrictions place on available lots.
The who: Students on the UF campus
The what: They are unable to find convenient, reliable parking
The why: There are many restrictions on available spots
3)There are other people who share in this need. On gameday weekends, for example, many families and fans come to UF to watch the game, and there is not a sufficient supply of parking spaces for everybody. The problem is not necessarily that there are not enough spots, it is simply just that not all of the spots are available for people to park. When you have fifty-thousand or more people on campus, there is no way everyone can fit their car into a spot. This is why a lot of students have resorted to scooters for the time being. Most students would agree that having more parking spaces would be highly beneficial. It would allow people to better commute from place to place without having to stress about getting ticketed.
4)The five interviews I conducted, I revolved them around 3 different types of students: One student from Broward, one from Hume Hall, and one from Jennings hall. I also interviewed an alumni who frequently travels to UF to watch football games, and a student who live off-campus and has to commute to campus everyday for classes.
Interview 1: Broward Hall Student
I talked to this student quite a bit. He told me that he currently has a car at UF. The one convenient part about living in Broward is that there is a parking garage right next to the dorms. He says, however, that when he does decide to use them (not on the weekends) he has to wake up before 7 in the morning to move it so that he does not get a ticket. The main feeling I detected was frustration that he cannot leave his car there when he wants to.
Interview 2: Jennings Hall Student
This student described similar frustrations as the student from Broward. She had a car last year, but decided not to bring it this semester due to the inconvenience. She found that she was getting tickets left and right for simple parking violations, and ultimately decided that it was not worth the effort. She said she tried parking at the commuter lot near Hume a few times, but it was incredibly inconvenient, as the walk back was not worth the effort.
Interview 3: Hume Hall Student
This student did not find it as annoying having a car on campus. They mainly use it to travel off campus on the weekends or to go out to eat with friends. However, students at Hume have a commuter lot, so he did not find it as much of a nuisance. He did however mention that his friends at Broward always complain about parking.
Interview 4: Football fan
This person comes to most UF football games during the season. Since he is always super early, he often does not find trouble finding parking spaces for himself. However, he did note about how there are cars parked everywhere due to the lack of parking spaces available to the many fans that travel to UF to watch the games. UF tries to compensate for this buy restricting certain parking zones to students so that only fans can use them on the game weekends.
Interview 5: Off-campus student
This student used to use their car to come to campus for classes, but ultimately decided that it was not worth the hassle. After a few tickets, he quickly resorted to utilizing the RTS bus system to get to campus, and now leaves his car at his apartment complex. He said that he now only uses his car to go places of campus, such as grocery shopping, dinner, etc.
After all of the interviews were conducted, I realized that this opportunity does exist because a majority of the people that I interviewed displayed similar discontent and frustration with the current parking system at UF. There is a commuter lot, however, for students living in Broward, or other residence halls farther away, using this lot is not beneficial to them.
Parking has always been one of the biggest issues on college campuses especially on days like move in days and game days. However I don’t understand where an opportunity exists for this problem because it seems that no matter where there is a new parking space available it will always seem far to some students depending on where they live or where ever they need to go.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post and something we can all relate to. I also didn't bring my car to campus because there was a genuine lack of parking spaces and I found myself stressing if I was too long in any particular spots due to time restrictions. The 45 minute parking is nice but also not ideal. With events occurring daily around campus, there is a real shortage of spaces and unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any push for additional parking lots in the new future. Scooters have been a good way to deal with the lack of car spaces but there is the issue of safety and even weather challenges. Sadly, I don't know what solution can be proposed that will please everyone but this is a real opportunity that will constantly be addressed.
ReplyDeleteWow, I thought this post was very well written and insightful. You made it extremely detailed, allowing me to fully understand the opportunity. I like how you interviewed people that fell under different categories. Providing information from students who live all across campus and non students who visit UF only strengthen your argument that this opportunity is present and needs to be acknowledged. I have a car at UF and have spent about $500 in parking tickets alone, so I fully understand the need.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel the frustration you describe in having to find a parking spot, and can confirm the opportunity exists as a fellow car owner on campus. As large as this university is, there needs to be an urgent need in the administration to create and open up more parking spots. Because of the lack of parking we have to deal with the safety issues scooters bring, which are very dangerous especially because very little people actually wear a helmet. Parking needs to be more easily accessible for students, especially those who live far away from campus.
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