Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1) Pick an opportunity you would like to pursue.  Parking in Gainesville, specifically near the University of Florida campus, is extremely limited due to the sudden increase in new apartments.

2)

• The who: any student, guest, or resident in the University of Florida campus vicinity. 
• The what: they are unable to find parking near their apartments or on campus at almost any time. 
• The why: developers in the campus vicinity have over built and not built the parking to satisfy all the new apartments. 

3)

• Testing the who: the who can be extended out to even one time guests and visiting families. The only exception within the who are the residents who pay obscenely expensive monthly rates to have their own reserved parking spot. This number is extremely small in comparison to the other residents who need to find street parking.
• Testing the what: Although all areas surrounding campus are in need or more parking the biggest focus and most populated area are the areas north and east of campus. However the areas west and south of campus are also running into even more parking problems as developers are also expanding in these areas. 
• Testing the why: After interviewing several people I have found various why's across the board. Some said that it is in fact due to the over building in these surrounding areas. Others turned the blame more on themselves and said they chose an apartment complex that just didn't have enough parking near by or by choosing a too heavily populated area. However, both of these why's also go back to the main why that developers are over building.

4) Throughout the course of interviews I was able to grasp a more broad concept of the parking issue and asked students with cars, scooters, and neither. I was surprised to find that many students actually don't bring their cars up to begin with because of the parking issue. They found it to be annoying and tiresome to constantly have to find parking and opted to leaving their car at home and using the bus on campus. Other students with the same dilemma opted for scooters, which is my personal choice, and still had complaints that scooter parking is also extremely limited. Although not as annoying to find parking, these students stated they are constantly getting tickets for illegal parking. Lastly, I was not surprised to find the most unrest within the students who do have their cars in Gainesville. Girls stated they felt extremely unsafe at times parking their cars at nights and said they sometimes have to park blocks away from their apartment. Essentially these students said most times they need a car just to get to their parking spot. Overall the interviews further solidified my belief that something needs to be done about the parking across the board.