7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

As mentioned before in previous assignments, one of my big pet peeves in Gainesville is the city parking and the parking on UF campus. As a college student living in Gainesville, I am constantly struggling to find parking in my zone near my apartment. Not only do I struggle with parking at my apartment, but I also struggle with minimal parking at UF. If there was less parking being sold, there would be more parking spots. If there were areas for more parking, everyone would have a spot to park in.

Who: The people that have this need are people living in Gainesville that pay for city parking.

What: Increase the amount of parking in Gainesville, or limit the amount of spots sold to avoid some being left without parking spots.

Why: To ensure everyone has a spot to park in. There have been times that I have searched for over an hour to find a parking spot.

After talking to students at the University of Florida, they all seemed to have the same issue with parking, whether it is street parking, on campus, or in various locations in Gainesville.

Interviews:

Sarah- “As a college student on a budget, I could not afford to pay $250 each month for a parking spot in the lot for my apartment. I believe paying for Gainesville parking is reasonable, only paying $110 a year. Finding a spot is annoying after moving my car, but it also reminds me that I save more on gas because I realize I’m not driving around as much. I also realized that I don’t go to restaurants as much as I used to.” Sarah believes that city parking in Gainesville is reasonable, but she also thinks it is difficult to find parking in her zone especially when coming back to her apartment late at night. “I’ve had to search for a parking spot for over an hour before, and when I did find one, it wasn’t even in my zone. I couldn’t find any parking so I just parked in a different zone and then I had to wake up and move my car before 8:00am. As for a solution, I’m not sure what could be done to change the parking dilemma. I know many students have the same issues I do with parking, so I would possibly just suggest creating more, if that’s something that could happen.”

Devyn- “The parking is way too limited. I hate that it is all parallel parking. I don’t think the signs are clear enough for parking and sometimes it’s confusing. I’ve gotten UF parking tickets because I had to park in lots that were not not my own. As a Freshman I had to park in a lot 20 minutes away, and when getting groceries, it’s not ideal to walk 20 minutes with everything in your hands. It’s not only the parking by my apartment or on campus, but also it’s difficult to park in many lots. The Publix on University lacks parking. First, they don’t have low acid orange juice, and then the parking is the worst. Students will study in the Starbucks and hold up the parking in there. To solve the issue of parking, they should build parking garages in various locations, such as in the lot across from the Publix on University.”

Diana- “Gainesville city parking has never been my favorite. I always find an issue and have gotten various tickets. I have been ticketed for my scooter and my car.” Diana says, “not only are there not enough parking spots, but when there is a parking spot, I’ll still get ticketed for half of my car out of the lines. As long as it’s not blocking anything, I feel like it should be fine, it’s difficult to find parking as it is.” “The zoning also doesn’t make sense to me, there will be a lot for one area, and then none for another that is a populated area with many apartments. I think this issue could be solved if they limited the amount of parking that was sold for the city.”

Hannah- “I currently live in Tuscana apartments and I have trouble finding city parking in Gainesville almost every day. I frequently move my car because I volunteer at Shands, go to research, and also have to run errands throughout the day. I usually don’t move my car for classes because there is also no parking on campus. Where I live is in zone 5, the area is very odd because zone 5 parking is in many locations. I really do not like this because I don’t feel comfortable walking long distances to my apartment, especially at night.” Hannah has had to walk alone after not finding parking directly outside of her apartment late at night, she has stated that it makes her uncomfortable to walk such distances because there are always people wondering around on the streets.

Tiff- “I live in the Standard on University. I pay $150 a month to park here and yet I have still gotten towed before they even let some of the residents know that they were enforcing parking. I also have a city parking decal because I have used it before to park on the street by my sorority house. I always have trouble finding parking and have thought that city parking is useless. It is difficult to find a spot when everyone is limited to this area for parking. I am lucky enough to have parking in the parking garage for my apartment, but I also have other issues to worry about, such as people constantly hitting my car in such small spaces. I think as a whole, Gainesville is very limited on parking. There are so many students and not enough parking. I don’t ever feel like this issue will be solved though.”