I talked to five people who all fell outside of my opportunity but not all for the same reasons. One girl I spoke to, lives off campus so she cannot park in any UF decal spot. Instead, she uses neighborhood parking. So she still falls in the groups of students who drive cars, but is unaffected by the issue of lack of UF student decal spaces. The second person is a UF student that lives on campus. She however, decided to purchase a parking space in a lot owned by a local housing company off campus. She did not opt to purchase a UF student decal. She falls outside of the opportunity because she has a reserved spot of her own elsewhere. The third and fourth people I talked to are UF students who do park on campus. They actually said that they do not really ever have issues finding parking spaces. They say that they only use their cars when it is absolutely necessary so they do not have to move them often. They also said that they will only move their cars during times when there are typically many open spots. One student also told me that she does not mind driving farther away from where she lives to park. She is willing to walk farther from her car to her living space. This opens up a lot more spaces since she can utilize the entire campus instead of just parking near where she lives. The fifth person I talked to said that she purchased a UF parking decal and a neighborhood parking decal so she has access to two sets of spots. This need seemed to be very apparent and concrete after Part 1. After this set of interviews though, it seemed to maybe not be as widespread as I thought. It only affects a certain group of people and the boundaries of those people are pretty strict lines. However there is a blurring of the lines when it comes to people who are eligible to park on campus but choose not to. This takes them out of the opportunity group but by their own choice not because of the opportunity itself. The underlying cause of these people to not park on campus could stem from the same original issue of there not being enough parking spots on campus.
I thought it was very cool that you were able to talk with people who all had different reasons for not parking on campus. I feel as though most of the time people generally have the same reasons. I also thought that it was very interesting that one of your interviewees lived on campus, but bought a spot in an off campus lot. I also feel as though if new parking spaces were created people who do not park on campus normally, might reconsider especially after the decals are lifted. So more red decals could wind up benefiting them.
ReplyDeleteI am actually one of those people that will park my car fairly far from my house in a city decal spot instead of paying these crazy prices for private spots. I also use my car really only when I have to considering I have a scooter. For others though, car may be their only way of transportation. I think your target market seems to be people living close or on campus with only one way of transportation. Great job!
ReplyDelete