UF Parking Problem

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Imagine living in a world where you get a $35 parking ticket every single week. For students at the University of Florida, this scenario is real life. As high school students go through the process of picking the college of their dreams, most do not consider the struggle of parking on campus. Therefore, the thousands of naive freshman that choose the University of Florida become enraged when the only place their decal allows them to park appears completely full, or when reckless students push all the scooters over just to park within the lines in order to prevent a ticket. The UF parking problem comes as an obvious issue, not only to students, but to everyone that brings their car on university grounds. Even visitors that only stay for a night …show more content…

However, if the university realizes that helping the problem can also help the environment around campus, then they may consider some worthy proposals. As this ongoing concern at the University of Florida continues, multiple ideas arise as ways to help the issue. From adding encouraging students or faculty to use bikes, to not selling more decals than parking spots, or even allowing students to only purchase one decal for either their car or scooter, anything can help these UF students, while also helping the environment and economy. As an outsider looking in, this parking phenomenon may not seem like such a dire problem, however, students at the university beg to differ. One University of Florida student writes "Although a car is not necessary for campus, it is very useful. Unfortunately, the parking on campus is a nightmare. The permit costs are incredibly expensive, especially because they oversell by a huge percentage”(Crabbe). This student points out the many issues that arise from the UF parking system. First off, the university tends to sell more decals than parking spaces available. As …show more content…

Other schools have implemented rules and techniques in order to make parking easier and limit the amount of citations given to students for parking. Solutions such as car-pooling and limiting the issue of parking permits solves this problem for universities across the nation. For example, Cornell implements a system that encourages students to carpool. In this system students that carpool have the opportunity to park closer to popular sections on campus. Also, parking for these carpooling cars may be less expensive and these students may even be given a rebate for agreeing to carpool. Having this carpooling system added advantages towards Cornell’s parking system, introduced by high level economist Ehrenberg “..all these carefully calibrated initiatives forestalled having to add new paved areas on the central campus, cut down on the number of vehicles nearby, and provided clear incentives for those who participated”(Olivas). Proving that this system Cornell uses not only helps the university economically, but also confronts the issue on parking. Nevertheless, more universities also have rules that effectively ease parking. The University of New Hampshire prohibits freshman and sophomore residents, and others living within half a mile of campus from bringing their cars on campus. While the University of Wisconsin-Madison will only issue

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