Testing the Hypothesis

1) The opportunity I chose to pursue is the scooter parking issue on the University of Florida Campus.

2) University of Florida are unable to find parking for their scooters on campus due to a lack of designated parking spaces.

• The who: University of Florida students
• The what: not being able to find scooter parking
• The why: lack of parking spots

3)

• Testing the who: This issue is very important for students, however, it doesn't exactly apply to anybody else. It is also limited to the students that own and use scooters.
• Testing the what: The issue is seems to affect some areas much more than others. In some parts of the campus this is hardly an issue while in others it is almost impossible to ever find a spot.
• Testing the why: This problem has been described as one of the main reasons a lot of people are late to class and leading people to avoid some parts of the campus. Some people end up using just about any other form of transportation over their scooter due to the parking situation. 

4) I went around different locations of the campus to interview individuals on the topic I find to be so troubling and the responses were for the most part what I had expected. The very small scooter parking lot along the side of Library West  is a very congested area when it comes to parking and that is where I was able to speak to both Aby and Raul. I asked Aby how she felt about the parking situation by Library West and if it should be changed. She responded by explaining how aggravating it is to try to find a spot and how she many times has to park in spots that aren't designated for parking. She expressed that a change would be amazing but had been set on the idea that the University didn't care about the issue. When I spoke to Raul he said he lives near by and so he tries to walk there as much as possible due to the difficulty of finding parking. After this I chose to find a new location so I went to Turlington Plaza to question a different crowd. I spoke to a guy named Jeffery who told me he had a scooter that he hadn't used in months because trying to find parking on campus was useless. After class in the physics building I spoke to my classmate Jess and she told me that taking the scooter to class was by far the most convenient way of getting there and that the parking situation never caused her any problems. This surprised me but I had also noted that traffic wasn't nearly as bad on that side of campus. After this I chose to go a bit farther and asked around Southwest Gym. Here I met a kid by the name of Akash who was standing over a scooter with a boot strapped to it. He told me that there had been many occasions where he couldn't find a spot and would simply park illegally so he could make it to class on time. This led to so many tickets that the UF police department finally put a boot on his scooter. 

5) Through the different interviews I began to understand that the issue is much more prominent in certain areas of the campus. It did appear that some areas, such as Library West and Southwest Gym, needed much better parking layouts, yet areas such as around the Physics building were very well situated.