1. Rusted Bike Chains.
WHY: Many of the bike racks around campus (specifically those located around the dorms) are uncovered, and allows the bikes to get rained on. This leads to rust forming on the chain.
2. DoorDash Food Waste.
WHY: When you order through DoorDash, the order is instantly sent to the restaurant, irrespective of whether a driver is available to pick up your food. Sometimes, if you order past 10PM, there will never be a driver available, but your food will still be made. This food goes to waste.
3. Apartment Complex Parking Spots are Too Small.
WHY: The apartment complex I live at (College Park Apartments) tried to maximize the amount of people who could park in the lot. However, the spots are so small that many cars end up getting dinged when large cars try to fit in them.
4. The road at 15th street (by the Chipotle) is often congested, and blocks traffic from leaving the Chipotle parking lot.
WHY: 15th street is a very narrow road, and they allow parking on the west side of the road. This causes an issue where there is only space for one car to travel through the road at a time. When there is a red light, and cars are backed up trying to get onto West University Ave, the road does not have space to leave the Chipotle parking lot.
5. It is hard to find a group table at Newell Library.
WHY: People who are alone will sit at one of the large tables at Newell, as opposed to using one of the many individual seats that can be found at Newell
6. Washing Machine Availability is Low.
WHY: People will wash/dry their clothes, and leave the clothes in the washing/drying machine for hours, blocking up space for other users.
7. The stovetop in my apartment (College Park Apartments) is uneven, and makes it difficult to cook anything as all of the food/sauces build up on one side.
WHY: The oven was improperly installed, and the metal for my stovetop is slightly bent. Maintenance has too many requests to be able to handle mine within any reasonable time frame.
8. Beaty Tower's often has an elevator broken down.
WHY: Beaty towers has 2 elevators in it's main lobby. Therefore, maintenance does not prioritize fixing elevators unless both are broken. However, it often takes a long time to get an elevator, as there is only one for a 13 story building. The elevators also become congested during peak hours, if only one is working.
9. Outlets in my apartment (College Park Apartments) are not working.
WHY: Previous tenants did not test all the outlets present in my apartment, and therefore did not put in the adequate maintenance requests.
10. People will ride their bikes on the wrong side of bike lane
WHY: Some of the areas on campus (specifically the road that runs next to library west) only has bike lanes in one direction. Therefore you often see bikers in the same lane heading towards each other. Also, many people are not properly informed on the rules of bike transportation, and do not know that they have to select a specific side to bike on.
11. Cars use the bike lane on Buckman drive (by Newell) as an unloading area, blocking the bike lane.
WHY: There are no dedicated lanes for people to pull over and drop off friends/classmates at Newell Libary, or at the Hub. These areas are very populated areas of campus, and deserve to have a dedicated area for unloading.
12. Not enough desk space in Turlington lecture halls to have a laptop and a notebook out
WHY: All of the lecture halls in Turlington have taken to saving space by not having desks in front of students, and instead having a pull out desk built into the chairs. This allows them to have more seats, but at the cost of the amount of space students have to write on.
13. Classes being assigned in locations that cannot fit the class
WHY: There is a miscommunication between the class scheduler's and the teachers on the amount of students that are in a class. These leads to instances like the one which happened to me, in which a 300 person class is assigned a room that only sits 70 students.
14. Large confusion around financial aid disbursement
WHY: The financial aid disbursements are given seemingly randomly, with some people getting their disbursements days after others. The office also does not provide a date on when the money is supposed to be provided by, so people are left clueless as to when they can get their money.
15. There is often a line for bench press stations at the Student Rec center gym
WHY: There are only 3 benches available at the Student Rec center gym, which is not enough to account for the high volume of people that go there at peak hours. There is often a line to get into the gym, which means most machines are packed, leading to a second line of people waiting for the bench press station.
16. There is a lot of larger scale trash (IE: grills, tables) that are discarded at the side of the road, instead of donated.
WHY: There is no reliable method for people with small cars to transport such items to a proper donation area, and there are no services which you can call that will send people to come pick up the furniture.
17. Only one of the service lines at the Moes (Student Rec Center) is utilized, leading to a large line which could instead be spread between two lines.
WHY: There are not enough employees working at Moes to staff both the lines.
18. Cars and bikes get blocked by pedestrians at the crosswalk between Marston and century tower
WHY: At peak hours of the day, there is a constant flow of pedestrians through the crosswalk, allowing for cars to be stuck waiting on a clear path, or just pushing their way through.
19. Teachers assign exams on the same day, forcing students to have to prioritize which exam to spend the most time studying.
WHY: Teachers have no system of informing other teachers when exams are taking place, leading to them scheduling exams on the same time as other teacher's exams.
20. There is now only one 24/7 library available, which means there is a higher volume of people heading there, and it is less likely to get seats.
WHY: Library West is no longer 24/7, leaving Newell to be the only 24/7 library, and driving high volumes of people to Newell on packed days.
REFLECTION: I found it surprisingly difficult to come up with this list. It required me to change my perspective to focus more on the reasons behind some of these issues, as opposed to just the existence of the issues themselves. However, it did help me to understand why some of these issues exist, as there may not necessarily be an easy solution to them. I found that thinking in this manner could be very beneficial and help me to come up with possible issues that need solving, especially those that I could create a business out of.
WHY: Many of the bike racks around campus (specifically those located around the dorms) are uncovered, and allows the bikes to get rained on. This leads to rust forming on the chain.
2. DoorDash Food Waste.
WHY: When you order through DoorDash, the order is instantly sent to the restaurant, irrespective of whether a driver is available to pick up your food. Sometimes, if you order past 10PM, there will never be a driver available, but your food will still be made. This food goes to waste.
3. Apartment Complex Parking Spots are Too Small.
WHY: The apartment complex I live at (College Park Apartments) tried to maximize the amount of people who could park in the lot. However, the spots are so small that many cars end up getting dinged when large cars try to fit in them.
4. The road at 15th street (by the Chipotle) is often congested, and blocks traffic from leaving the Chipotle parking lot.
WHY: 15th street is a very narrow road, and they allow parking on the west side of the road. This causes an issue where there is only space for one car to travel through the road at a time. When there is a red light, and cars are backed up trying to get onto West University Ave, the road does not have space to leave the Chipotle parking lot.
5. It is hard to find a group table at Newell Library.
WHY: People who are alone will sit at one of the large tables at Newell, as opposed to using one of the many individual seats that can be found at Newell
6. Washing Machine Availability is Low.
WHY: People will wash/dry their clothes, and leave the clothes in the washing/drying machine for hours, blocking up space for other users.
7. The stovetop in my apartment (College Park Apartments) is uneven, and makes it difficult to cook anything as all of the food/sauces build up on one side.
WHY: The oven was improperly installed, and the metal for my stovetop is slightly bent. Maintenance has too many requests to be able to handle mine within any reasonable time frame.
8. Beaty Tower's often has an elevator broken down.
WHY: Beaty towers has 2 elevators in it's main lobby. Therefore, maintenance does not prioritize fixing elevators unless both are broken. However, it often takes a long time to get an elevator, as there is only one for a 13 story building. The elevators also become congested during peak hours, if only one is working.
9. Outlets in my apartment (College Park Apartments) are not working.
WHY: Previous tenants did not test all the outlets present in my apartment, and therefore did not put in the adequate maintenance requests.
10. People will ride their bikes on the wrong side of bike lane
WHY: Some of the areas on campus (specifically the road that runs next to library west) only has bike lanes in one direction. Therefore you often see bikers in the same lane heading towards each other. Also, many people are not properly informed on the rules of bike transportation, and do not know that they have to select a specific side to bike on.
11. Cars use the bike lane on Buckman drive (by Newell) as an unloading area, blocking the bike lane.
WHY: There are no dedicated lanes for people to pull over and drop off friends/classmates at Newell Libary, or at the Hub. These areas are very populated areas of campus, and deserve to have a dedicated area for unloading.
12. Not enough desk space in Turlington lecture halls to have a laptop and a notebook out
WHY: All of the lecture halls in Turlington have taken to saving space by not having desks in front of students, and instead having a pull out desk built into the chairs. This allows them to have more seats, but at the cost of the amount of space students have to write on.
13. Classes being assigned in locations that cannot fit the class
WHY: There is a miscommunication between the class scheduler's and the teachers on the amount of students that are in a class. These leads to instances like the one which happened to me, in which a 300 person class is assigned a room that only sits 70 students.
14. Large confusion around financial aid disbursement
WHY: The financial aid disbursements are given seemingly randomly, with some people getting their disbursements days after others. The office also does not provide a date on when the money is supposed to be provided by, so people are left clueless as to when they can get their money.
15. There is often a line for bench press stations at the Student Rec center gym
WHY: There are only 3 benches available at the Student Rec center gym, which is not enough to account for the high volume of people that go there at peak hours. There is often a line to get into the gym, which means most machines are packed, leading to a second line of people waiting for the bench press station.
16. There is a lot of larger scale trash (IE: grills, tables) that are discarded at the side of the road, instead of donated.
WHY: There is no reliable method for people with small cars to transport such items to a proper donation area, and there are no services which you can call that will send people to come pick up the furniture.
17. Only one of the service lines at the Moes (Student Rec Center) is utilized, leading to a large line which could instead be spread between two lines.
WHY: There are not enough employees working at Moes to staff both the lines.
18. Cars and bikes get blocked by pedestrians at the crosswalk between Marston and century tower
WHY: At peak hours of the day, there is a constant flow of pedestrians through the crosswalk, allowing for cars to be stuck waiting on a clear path, or just pushing their way through.
19. Teachers assign exams on the same day, forcing students to have to prioritize which exam to spend the most time studying.
WHY: Teachers have no system of informing other teachers when exams are taking place, leading to them scheduling exams on the same time as other teacher's exams.
20. There is now only one 24/7 library available, which means there is a higher volume of people heading there, and it is less likely to get seats.
WHY: Library West is no longer 24/7, leaving Newell to be the only 24/7 library, and driving high volumes of people to Newell on packed days.
REFLECTION: I found it surprisingly difficult to come up with this list. It required me to change my perspective to focus more on the reasons behind some of these issues, as opposed to just the existence of the issues themselves. However, it did help me to understand why some of these issues exist, as there may not necessarily be an easy solution to them. I found that thinking in this manner could be very beneficial and help me to come up with possible issues that need solving, especially those that I could create a business out of.
Hello Schuyler,
ReplyDeleteAs a student who lives off campus as well, I can relate to all the bugs you stated related to the living in an apartment complex and the one driving to school. I would personally suggest creating additional pathways for people who bike to school since you were right when you stated that the roads are way too small. But to be honest, I do not believe that we will find any solution to all these bugs during our time in UF which means that an alternative would be to move somewhere closer to UF or get involved and propose some suggestions to UF.
Hi Schuyler,
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting that a lot of your bugs have to do with bike transportation. These are all issues that I don’t necessarily think about since I don’t commute with a bike. You could definitely build some of these problems into ideas since it seems that you and many other bikers are frustrated. I also relate to some of your off-campus living bugs as someone who just started living off campus.