Testing The Hypothesis

College Campus Parking Opportunity

Opportunity Presented: 

Living in Florida has given me the opportunity to have a diverse set of friends attending universities throughout the state who all have their own parking issues. College students are faced with the same task everyday, and that is how are they going to get to class. For some students, the most preferred method of driving themselves to class isn't always the most convenient option. Florida Universities vary on their ability to accommodate students when it comes to convenience of transportation due to lack of available parking spots in relation to the extremely large population of students at our state universities, which continue to grow every year.

Who: Commuting college students at Florida Universities. 

What: Students are unable to access available parking on campus. 

Why: This problem exists because Florida Universities have failed to adapt to the rapidly growing student populations in which they house causing a lack of available parking available for the large university populations. 

Testing The Who:
I have already identified an audience for this opportunity through my previous Finding an Opportunity Belief assignment when I talked about the parking problem at UF and the immediate surrounding area. I previously attended UCF so I am familiar with the parking situation there, as I now am here where I already had the opportunity to interview students on the issue.

Testing The What: 
My goal for this assignment is to gather primary testimonies from students currently attending or recently graduated from universities within the state of Florida on their University parking situation and how it effects their commute experience and overall campus experience.

Testing The Why:
While testing for the why I will ask the interviewees what problems they have identified to be in contribution to the parking situation at their university.

Interviewee #1: University of Central Florida Student (Male 19):
I conducted this interview with a student that has been at UCF for 2 years. He lived on campus his first year with a parking pass for his car, and has been a commuter living just off campus for his current second year. I first asked him what it was like to be an on campus resident in the University dormitories who had a car with a parking pass. His response was directed at the limited number of locations you could park at around campus based on which on campus residence complex you live in. There is ample amount of parking throughout the UCF campus, the problem for on campus residence is they are limited to parking their vehicles within the immediate area in which they live, not allowing them the freedom to park around campus for class or recreational activities. I then asked him if the parking conditions improved or got worse when he moved off campus and became a commuter student. He answered with dissatisfaction. He expressed being a commuter student who drives their own vehicle at UCF is not an ideal circumstance. UCF has an ample amount of locations to park throughout campus, utilizing various large parking garages in key locations, the problem is the relatively small amount of parking spaces available to accommodate a university of over 65,000 students. This causes students to circle in and out of parking garages until they find an open spot.

Interviewee #2: University of Central Florida Alumni (Male 22):
This Alumni recently graduated in Spring 2019 after attending all four years at UCF. I began this interview by asking if he had a parking pass during his time as a UCF student and what type of parking pass he utilized if so. His response was straight forward, he lived on campus for one year and utilized the on campus parking pass that correlated to his residence building. He then lived off campus for the remaining three years and utilized a commuters pass all three of those years. In regards to the on campus pass he utilized his first year, he stated he did not drive much his first year but he found the parking garage assigned to him was convenient because the garage was big and only residence of his complex were authorized to park in the garage which reduced traffic. His experience with the commuters parking pass was near identical to interviewee #1. He expressed the fact that there was not enough parking spaces to accommodate the mass amount of students at the university. He stated the University has over 65,000 students, majority being commuters, but less than 10,000 parking spots to fully accommodate those students.

Interviewee #3: University of Florida Student (Male 20): 
This student is currently in his second year at UF and has lived in on campus residence complexes both years. This student has utilized an on campus parking decal both years he has been at UF. While interviewing this student I asked if he found the parking pass to be worth the cost. His response was mixed. He stated having a parking pass as an on campus resident is convenient because it gives him the flexibility to leave campus when needed and provides him the flexibility to park around campus after 4pm. He also stated that the situation is bearable but not ideal. Having a parking pass at UF doesn't provide much transportation flexibility while going to class or even recreation. UF offers very limited parking options to students throughout campus, leaving students to rely on other modes of transportation such as bus, bike, or walk which can often times be less reliable and less efficient than the option to drive and park close to your destination on campus.

Interviewee #4: University of Florida Student (Female 20): 
This student is currently in their second year at UF. She has never utilized a parking pass in her time at UF. I began this interview by asking why she has never purchased a parking pass. She responded by saying she never saw a need to purchase one because her freshman year she lived on campus and did not have car and her second year she is utilizing the RTS bus system. I followed this question up by asking if UF offered more parking availability to students throughout campus would she purchase a parking pass. She stated she would purchase a parking pass. This would allow her to commute to school on her own schedule making it more convenient and attractive as a mode of transportation.  


Interviewee #5: University of North Florida (Female 20): 
This student is currently a third year at UNF. This student utilizes a parking pass as she lives off campus. I asked her what the main method of transportation was for students. She stated in her observation most people drive their own vehicles to campus and parking in an assigned lot based on which parking pass you purchased. She stated that the passes are relatively expensive and do not offer much flexibility as prices fluctuate contingent upon which parking structure you choose to purchase a pass for. The issue is not so much the availability of parking but the limitations the each pass holds.


Summary:
Throughout this interview process I was able to identify a trend. University students throughout the state of Florida are experiencing dissatisfaction and frustration with their university parking arrangements. I found students targeted the number of available parking spots to be non-accommodating for the large population of students and limits on parking passes restricting where you can throughout campus. Universities throughout the state of Florida are not building enough parking structures to accommodate the growing number of students attending their school, making driving to class and to on campus activities an inconvenient or sometimes not possible option for students.