7A: Testing A Hypothesis Part 1

7A: Testing A Hypothesis Part 1:

1)The University of Florida needs to find a way to make pedestrian walking more safe and fine a way to speed up traffic speed that is caused by pedestrian walkers.

2)The Who: Pedestrian Walkers (students and teachers), Car Drivers, Bus Drivers, Bikers

The What: Not only does the amount of pedestrian in gainesville slow down traffic significantly, it also makes it less safe for both drivers and pedestrian walkers.

Why: I have been affected by this situation in that I have been in both shoes as a driver and a walker. I have noticed how much walkers slow down traffic and also how people who walk feel nervous around cars when walking around campus.

3) Testing the Who: to test the who I want to make sure that I interview all different kids of people of all different age groups who use all different kinds of transportation at the University of Florida.

Testing the What: I want to get peoples opinions on whether or not they think there could be an easier and/or safer way to transport people around campus

Testing the Why: I want to see if other people are affected by this opportunity as much as i am and to see if they believe there is anything that we could do as a community to solve the problem.

4) Interviews:

1. My Friend who always walks around campus. My goal throughout these interviews were to interview all different kind of students who use different forms of transportation to get around campus. Talking to a person who walks everywhere we discussed whether or not he feels safe when crossing the main student crossing intersections around campus such as Gale Lemorand and centre rd. these two streets are probably the most populated during the schools days with thousands of people crossing these streets each day. He told me he usually feels safe when crossing these streets because drivers know they are in a heavy populated area so they tend to drive more safe.
2. The next person I interviewed was a friend of my who takes his scooter everyday to get to class. He says that because of all the walkers around campus he has to leave an extra 10 minutes earlier because of how much people who walk around slow down traffic especially in between class periods. He also told me how he feels that people who drive to get around are usually very impatient when it comes to walkers and how that could lead to it not being as safe.
3. The third person I interviewed was someone I found biking in the streets. He said that he prefers to bike so he doesn’t have to wait in the traffic that is caused by the people walking to class. He said that the Bike lane is a great invention because it keeps pedestrians on the sidewalk and makes sure bikers can’t get into accidents with people who are walking.
4. The 4th person that I interviewed was my brother who also goes to UF who uses his car as his main way of transportation. His opinion of the subject was very similar to my friend who uses his scooter. He too thought that people who walk slow down traffic in a big way, but he understands that this might be their only way of transportation.
5. The final person I interviewed was a teacher who walks around campus. I wanted to get an interview of someone in a different age group and see if they had similar thoughts to others. He believed that even though some drivers and scooters may be impatient, that they understand they are driving in a college campus so they are always weary of people who are crossing the street.

My biggest takeaway from these interviews is that all these people share very similar thoughts and views on pedestrians walking and driving around campus. For the most part they think that there is nothing you could do to try and speed up traffic around campus. You just have to come to a realization that since it is a college campus with over 50,000 people that there is bound to be traffic especially at certain times during the day.

After giving my interviews the biggest thing I learned is that people don’t really care about the speed of the traffic they more care about making sure every student and person who is walking across the street is able to get to class or to wherever their destination is. Even though sometimes is might be annoying that museum road is all the way backed up but since we are living in a college campus the number one priority is making sure every student is safe and feels comfortable when walking, biking, scooting or driving around campus