Free rides to downtown, Midtown to promote consent

UF students headed to Gainesville’s bars and clubs will soon be able to hitch a free ride while learning about sexual consent.

Starting Thursday, an electric car decorated in comic-book-style illustrations depicting sexual scenarios will be available to ferry students from campus to the bar scene and back as part of a UF campaign to teach riders about the importance of consent.

The car, a Green Operated Transit Carrying Humanity Around, or GOTCHA, Ride, is one of about five currently operational cars, run through an independent company in partnership with UF transportation services.

The vehicles have been around for more than five years, but for the first time they will promote consent through their illustrations, said Scott Fox, director of UF’s transportation and parking services.

For UF finance senior Felipe Bricio, it’s about time. The 21-year-old said some students are not clear on what constitutes consent. A friend to some students who have been raped in the past, Bricio said the consequences of ignorance make a program like this necessary.

“I see how much damage something like that can do,” he said.

The Sexual Trauma Interpersonal Violence Education, a UF sex-education program run through GatorWell, is behind the newly decorated rides, GatorWell Spokesperson Joel Axon said. STRIVE, funded by student health fees, paid $12,500 for the car’s advertisements during Spring, said Rita Lawrence, the interpersonal violence prevention coordinator for GatorWell.

Students call the service, like they would a taxi, to set up rides during Fall and Spring semesters from 9:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. from Thursdays to Saturdays, he said.

The advertisements will stretch around both doors of the black car, which fits up to eight passengers, Axon said.

“It’s a really good way for us to be out there in the community with the UF students,” he said.

Although the ride is free, GOTCHA’s business model encourages passengers to tip drivers, he said. In January 2016, the company reported 4,512 riders to UF transportation, Fox said.

STRIVE’s directors are advertising with GOTCHA Ride for sexual-consent awareness after a Spring 2014 focus group revealed that college students didn’t clearly understand consent, said Rita Lawrence, the interpersonal violence prevention coordinator for GatorWell.

Phase one and two of the sexual-consent educational campaign, which began Aug. 22, aimed to explain consent and how students are negatively affected by sexual assault. The group’s website defines consent as a process in a relationship or a series of sexual activities involving clear verbal and nonverbal communication.

The campaign’s final phase gives strategies for communicating about consent, including the GOTCHA advertisements, Lawrence said.

“I’m hoping they see it as something they can get onboard with,” she said.

Sexual Trauma Interpersonal Violence Education, a UF sex-education program run through GatorWell, is advertising its sexual consent campaign on the sides of a Green Operated Transit Carrying Humanity Around (GOTCHA) Ride. GOTCHA Ride is a free transportation service for students who travel to campus, Midtown and downtown Thursday through Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.