Forming An Opportunity Belief

1.       I think that there needs to be more scooter-only parking spots throughout Gainesville, so that scooters can have designated parking spots without taking up room needed by cars on the sides of the street.

2.       Not only do car drivers have this need, but it would likely benefit scooter drivers as well. Too many times has a scooter driven into a spot as I was backing into it, meaning that I can no longer park there. This is not only a dangerous situation for them (what if I hadn’t seen them in time?), but it’s a major annoyance when I’ve already spent twenty minutes searching for a spot. Or, sometimes, I will be parked in a spot, only to come out to my car and discover that I can’t leave because there are two scooters almost leaning on my car. My roommates have complained about both of these exact experiences. This need has existed for as long as there has been joint car and scooter parking throughout town. People are just dealing with it at the moment.

3.       The prototypical customer would be both car drivers and scooter drivers who use street parking in Gainesville. I found three- Adam, Momo, and Chris.

4.       I interviewed my roommate Adam, who complains about this most often.

5.       Me: Tell me about your parking experience in Zone 1 here.
Adam: It’s awful. Sometimes I’m driving around for fifteen minutes looking for a spot. It’s not as bad on the weekends, but especially late at night I can never find a spot within ten minutes of our place.
Me: Do you feel like scooters contribute to your frustration?
Adam: Oh, hell yeah, dude. I mean, seriously, they are literally the most frustrating thing. They just drive up wherever they see the tiniest bit of room and leave their scooters around. Doesn’t matter if a car is backing into the spot, doesn’t matter if the car won’t be able to get out, doesn’t matter if the scooter is in the middle of two open spaces, rendering a spot that could fit two cars useless.
Me: What if the city were to implement scooter-only parking spots?
Adam: You mean like on campus?
Me: Oh, yeah, I guess they do have those scooter areas. Just like that. I mean, it would take some spots away from cars, but then you wouldn’t have to worry about scooters driving in and blocking your vehicle or whatever.
Adam: I bet they could do that, too. The city would probably never fund something like that, though. They’d be too cheap to buy the tiny bit of paint and too lazy to enforce the new rule.
Me: But hypothetically, you would support it?
Adam: Yeah.

6.       I also interviewed Momo, who parks here somewhat often.  She has a small car that can fit into spaces much more easily than mine or Adams’.
Me: How do you feel about the parking situation when you come visit me.
Momo: What do you mean? You do all my parking for me, I can’t parallel park.
Me: Yeah, but like how do you feel about the amount of time to find a spot?
Momo: It’s ridiculous. A waste of gas, too. I hate driving around for so long only to have to walk for like ten minutes.
Me: And what about the scooters? Do you think they contribute to the whole frustration of the experience?
Momo: Probably. There was that one time where like you literally couldn’t get out of that spot and your friend just moved one of the bikes back a few feet.
Me: Do you feel like the city adding scooter-only parking spots would make everything a little bit easier?
Momo: Oh, yeah, sure, I guess. I hadn’t thought of that before. But what do you mean, should they, like, make new spaces or replace old ones or what’s the deal?
Me: Like, turn some car parking spots into several scooter spots. They could have like ten-twenty spots per street, and it would only take up about three or four old car spots.
Momo: Yeah, then we wouldn’t have to worry about them blocking you out. Seems cool to me.

7.       I also interviewed my friend’s friend Chris, who rides scooters!
Me: How has the parking situation been for you and your moped off-campus?
Chris: Not bad. I can usually find a little opening somewhere.
Me: Do you ever feel like you’re blocking cars from getting out?
Chris: Yeah, totally. Sometimes I worry that they’re gonna knock my bike over or whatever, but it’s ends up fine.
Me: What if the city provided scooter-only parking?
Chris: You mean like the little striped spots on campus? Near Broward?
Me: Yeah
Chris: That could work. I feel like people driving wouldn’t be cool about that, though. Wouldn’t you be taking some of their spots?
Me: Yeah, but then we wouldn’t have to worry about being blocked in or almost fitting in a spot, only to be blocked out by a scooter.
Chris: Yeah. I bet that wouldn’t be too hard to do, either.

8.       My opportunity is very popular with the people I interviewed who park in the same area, as they all agree that the parking situation is mediocre at best and could be improved.

9.       My original opportunity still remains. Everyone seemed very into what I was suggesting, and most agree that it would be somewhat simple for Gainesville to enforce scooter-only parking spots around town, just like the ones that exist on campus. No one really gave any suggestions on improving the idea, as it’s pretty simple. I don’t actually feel like it changed at all, everyone seemed to agree that it was a good plan.
However, had the people given suggestions, I would definitely listen to their feedback and make changes accordingly. Staying firm will often lead to an unpopular idea if you don’t listen to customer feedback. Listening to customer feedback will allow you to work with the public and make decisions based off of what they want.