-The unmet need that I have found is the parking
availability on UF’s campus, as well as others across the nation. For students,
teachers, and attendees of UF events, there is not enough organized parking for
safe and easy arrival or departure.
-Although there is a decal system used by the parking
department, the organization, distribution, and availability is inadequate.
With many people needing to be at a similar place at the same time causes
problems, especially for scooter drivers on a weekday morning.
Here are some ways to improve:
1.
Add on scooter parking to existing lots, while
only sacrificing much space. For instance, the lot next to Library west could
easily be doubled, while barely intruding into Plaza of the Americas. As of
now, a service road exists that could be widened to fit another strip of
parking.
2.
Give employees a few specific lots spread
throughout campus, and open up the lots to anyone with a decal, to spread the
concentration and provide options for car owners.
3.
Another useful move that could be made would be
turning some lots into parking garages. The issue outweighs the unpopular
feeling towards parking garages. In most cases minimal garages is best, but in
this case, there are multiple lots on campus which could easily be converted to
a parking garage to accommodate more visitors.
I believe that a proper proposal of this idea could be a
topic for the school to consider. The need has been around for a while and
there is an opportunity for it to be solved. With the number of students that
are affected by parking during their tenure at the school it serves as a big
issue. With these changes parking struggles would be minimalized.
Hey David! I think a good way to approach this issue when bringing about a solution is to present all these possibilities while keeping your focus on one main proposal. Maybe pick your favorite of the options and elaborate on it more so you don’t have to do research on how to accomplish each and every single alternative you drafted and overwork yourself. They’re all good ideas, so I can see why it’d be hard to just settle with one!
ReplyDeleteHi David.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the sentiment that the current parking system is pretty awful. I have to park my car downtown because the options offered by the university are completely inadequate and my apartment complex can get away with price gouging because we are students. I agree with the idea that we need more parking garages, however, it is true that they are eyesores. That being said, I think a reasonable compromise would be to build the garages not too far away but not in the center of campus. For example, the commuter lot has the large garage, but there is also a huge lot next to it that is underutilized. That space could be tripled by turning it into a garage, and since it is far enough away from the "pretty" part of campus, it wouldn't be a problem for the photogenics.
Hey David,
ReplyDeletethe idea of more parking spots at UF warms my heart, and I don't even have a scooter or car. Getting rid of multiple decals and having just one kind sounds nice too. I don't completely hate capitalism, but in occasions like those it really sucks. The only issue I can see is lack of space on campus. Would building more levels onto the parking garages be safe?