7A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The Opportunity

The flow of traffic on the University of Florida Campus is easily backed up, no matter what time of the day, in the area between the Reitz Union and the New Physics Building. This creation of traffic is primarily caused by the multitude of students trying to cross the street between these two places. To fix this problem, I think that there is an opportunity to build a pedestrian bridge over the road similar to that of the DNA Bridge, so that people can safely and efficiently cross the street without slowing down traffic.

The Who: Vehicles traveling between the area of the Reitz Union and the New Physics Building

The What: The area is commonly congested with vehicles and pedestrians making it difficult to get around on campus

The Why: Many students use the crosswalks in this area when going to class, which makes vehicles have to wait for them to walk across


Hypothesis

Testing the Who: Anyone who drives through this part of campus during the day experiences the difficulties of getting to their destination on time, dealing with cars stuck in the intersection of the walkways, and ensuring that no pedestrians are hit as they cross the street. Not only are drivers in need of a pedestrian bridge being built, but so are student pedestrians so that they can more quickly and safely travel to to their classes.

Testing the What: The need of a pedestrian bridge is quite specific only to this area on campus. All vehicles find it difficult to pass by when there are hundreds of people walking in random clumps to cross the street.

Testing the Why: The vehicles traveling through this area would find it easier to get to their destination because they would not have to wait in the traffic line that is created from people crossing the street. Pedestrians would not have to worry about being hit by a car or bus as they pass because they would be elevated above the vehicles.


Interviews

I asked a few important questions regarding a pedestrian bridge to the 5 people that I interviewed. For the first question I asked how often these people travel through the area of the Reitz Union and the New Physics Building to ensure that they are credible people to question. The next question I asked was if they have ever experienced difficulties with traffic as a driver or a pedestrian in this area. I then asked them if they thought that constructing a walkway bridge would be beneficial. Finally, I asked them if they had any other ideas for how the flow of traffic could be better maintained.

The first person I interviewed was my friend Nate Johnson who travels through this area everyday. He told me that he has many times suffered being late getting to somewhere when driving through this area, but never when he was walking across. He only was slightly worried that he might be hit by a car as he tries to cross. I then asked him about a pedestrian bridge and he thought that it would be a lot easier and cheaper to just have a stoplight at this location.

The second person I interviewed was Alex Dluzneski another student at the University of Florida. He told me that he does not travel through this area every day, but when he does he has experienced quite the congestion. He thought that the idea of a pedestrian bridge would be very beneficial, but was worried about the costs that would be associated with constructing said bridge.

The next person I interviewed was Jimmy Wheeler, who travels through this area multiple times a day. Jimmy said that when he drives through this area he often struggles with trying to avoid hitting pedestrians. To further back that, he was very supportive of the idea that a bridge could be built in this area and belives that they money would be well spent because of how many people are in this area of campus.

The fourth person I interviewed was Wes Biddle, who primarily drives his scooter through the area. He did not seem as concerned with the congestion because he often found it easy to maneuver his scooter through the path of pedestrians. However, he supported the idea of a bridge because he said that this could help the flow of traffic for buses and cars.

The last person I interviewed was Chris Nickas, who walks through this area almost everyday. Chris told me that he can tell how frustrated drivers get in this area as they try to pass by and thinks it's dangerous because it creates road rage sometimes. He agreed with me that the construction of a bridge would be impactful to helping the flow of traffic as well as ensuring the safety of our students trying to get to classes.


Summary

After testing my hypothesis, I have found mixed results. The people I interviewed were all aware of the congestion that is in this area, but some interesting points were made that I had not before considered. I now know that there could be a cheaper alternative to my opportunity with the creation of a stoplight in this area that could potentially solve the congestion problem. Altogether, I believe that everyone agrees that there needs to be something done in regards to the traffic in the area. We need to make sure that students feel safe when they are trying to cross the road on campus as well as make sure that people can travel in vehicles on campus and get to their destinations in a timely manner.