Outside of Library West, some of UF’s 5,000 scooters stack on top of one another as students try to squeeze them into the lines outlining the parking area.
Ron Fuller, the Assistant Director of Transportation and Parking Services said there’s a scooter parking problem on campus that didn’t exist 12 years ago. Following a fuel shortage around 2008, scooter companies realized there was a market and the numbers of scooters started creeping up. Parking areas that were empty were suddenly chock-full of scooters, he said.
Eileen Cullen, a UF family, youth and community sciences senior, said she has trouble finding scooter parking on campus.
“I come back to my scooter being pushed over or pretty beat up,” the 21-year-old said. “There is no rule about it either.”
Cullen said it’s not hard to find a parking spot, but the problem occurs when people try to squeeze their scooters into a tight space and damage the other vehicles.
Fuller said scooter riders have better parking than anybody else on campus.
“You can be lazier … because you know that you’re probably going to find something or you’re going to make something,” Fuller said.
Student Body President Smith Meyers said he is focused on finding a solution to UF’s scooter parking issues.
Meyers said parking is “a pretty common issue that students bring to my attention, mostly with scooter parking.”
Meyers also said SG plans to meet with Transportation and Parking Services in an effort to expand scooter parking next to Little Hall and Library West.
Fuller initially pushed for scooter parking at Library West, but now regrets it.
“I’m the one that pushed it (at Library West). I wish I had never done that, because it’s the wrong place for parking,” Fuller said.
Overcrowded afternoon parking at Keys Residential Complex at UF.
