Venture Concept No. 2

Pedestrian Bridge over Museum Road between NPB and Reitz Union



Opportunity

The opportunity that I have chosen to identify exists on the University of Florida Campus, specifically along one of the busiest roads, Museum Road. With the University of Florida being a large, connected campus that has many students focusing on doing well in their academics, there is a problem with traffic congestion. There is an area along Museum Road where there are three crosswalks in one intersection between the New Physics Building and the Reitz Union. Given that this is one of the most popular places to travel around, there is a lot of congestion that is created between students as pedestrians traveling to class and people in cars, trucks, and busses trying to drive around campus. As waves of students get out of class and find it necessary to cross the road, this often creates a lot of traffic as people in motor vehicles have to constantly wait for these people to cross. There are two groups of potential customers in this opportunity between UF students walking around campus and people who are operating motor vehicles along Museum Road. The market for my opportunity being addressed is very specific to the University of Florida Campus because I am only trying to solve the problems for people here and nowhere else. Currently, customers are satisfying this need of being able to travel in an efficient amount of time by either leaving earlier for their destination or by driving like maniacs and not giving any regard to the pedestrians crossing the street. The opportunity to build a pedestrian bridge will be here as long as UF stays as populated as it is and people's attitudes about how to deal with traffic does not get any better.


Innovation

The innovation that I am proposing is to address the needs of students, faculty, and bus drivers that want to be able to travel on campus more effectively and efficiently. This need will be addressed with the construction of a pedestrian bridge that goes above Museum Road to lets students cross the road without having to worry about being hit by a driver that is not paying attention. Not only will this pedestrian bridge benefit students walking from class to class, but it will also help drivers because they will no longer have to deal with the frustration of inching up and up in their motor vehicle as people cross the street in an unorderly process. I am unsure of the exact cost that would be required to build a bridge of this sort, but given the fact that we are a top university in the nation, I am sure that money would be able to be directed towards this effort and if not then I would do everything in my power to fundraise for it. This is obviously something that would need to be clearly mapped out before I would be able to get the University on board with building something on campus. I know that I would have to present things to them about the cost of the project and the type of environmental impact that the construction could have, so there would have to be more information collected before I went through with this.



Venture Concept

This concept that I have proposed will make the flow of traffic more efficient and allow people to walk on campus with a better state of mind knowing that their life is not at risk if they decide to cross Museum Road. Currently there are three main problems that arise with the way that things are set up.


1.) Too much traffic is situated in an area that is not prepared to handle the flow of people that it currently handles so people often spend way longer trying to travel through the area then they should. As a result, people are often frustrated and annoyed as they end up either being late to class or have to deal with a student who walks out in front of their motor vehicle.


2.) There are too many distracted drivers, which puts the lives of pedestrians at risk. People should be able to use a crosswalk on their college campus without having to worry about being hit by a car, truck, or bus.


3.) Many people will find a different way to drive on campus which only makes the rest of campus road even more congested with motor vehicles. It's better to solve the main problem at hand then to just spread the congestion across campus.



Customers will see this pedestrian bridge located across Museum Road and understand that this is their safest way of getting across the street in an efficient amount of time. A competitive idea that could be used to solve the traffic flow issue in this area could be to install another street stop light, but this will only frustrate people further as they still have to stop and wait in this area for the light to change green. Everyone will enjoy my concept because they will not only be able to walk from class to class in a safe manner from the pedestrian point of view, but also for the operators of motor vehicles- they will no longer have to worry about being constantly held up from groups of students crossing.


The Three Minor Elements

1.) I believe that my most important resource for this concept is the fact that I am a credible source of information in regards to the problem as a University of Florida student who deals with the same issues as everyone else. It is easier to get someone on board with you when they have the same lifestyle as you do.


2.) I am unsure of what my next venture would be because I have only focused my efforts towards the University of Florida's traffic issues. Maybe I could look to other college campuses that have the same type of traffic flow issue and try to install more pedestrian bridges to keep everyone safe.


3.) Assuming that I have launched and it has been 5 years, I will be doing something that has no connection to my pedestrian bridge opportunity. I am more focused on this now as a student, but 5 years later I will hopefully just be an alumnus who is happy that they have left a helping mark on the university.

Summary of the Feedback

• After reviewing the feedback that I received from my peers, I realize that with the proper presentation of my ideas and details, I have a lot of support. I believe that people could see the passion that I have to get this idea turned into an actual project that can do something good for the University of Florida campus. One of my peer review comments suggested that I may have some difficulty getting the University on board with my idea, but this is something that I think I can try to persuade by talking with the right people in charge and showing them how beneficial this change can be.
• The biggest change that I made in my venture concept was to better address the concern from my peers about getting the University of Florida to agree with the construction. There would be many details that would be have to be sorted out such as when exactly the construction could occur that would be least impactful to the traffic flow on campus and also how expensive it would cost.