I interviewed a girl that I met at the bus stop. I talked to her about my opportunity of providing the service of faster transportation in major cities by the construction of trams. She explained to me that she lives at the last bus stop and that it takes her about thirty minutes to arrive on campus. I asked her if she would not prefer to take a faster tram without traffic and faster speed and she said no. According to her, she enjoys being on a bus for a long time since she uses that time to read the news and start getting information about what she will see in class. I personally thought that she would have the unmet need I was trying to fulfill, but she convinced me that she did not.
Interview 2:
I interviewed my grandfather who lives in a town forty minutes away from Bogota about my opportunity. My grandfather is 75 years old and I assumed that if I would present him a way of how to avoid traffic and arrive faster to his destination, he would be pleased with the idea. Unfortunately, I was wrong with my assumption. He said that he loved driving his car since it has been always his dream car for his entire life. He would not mind at all being stuck in traffic for hours since he would then listen to his favorite radio and just enjoy being in the car.
Interview 3:
I interviewed my cousin who goes to the University of Los Andes. He wakes up every day at five in the morning in order to get ready and drives for an hour to the university in which he is stuck in traffic for thirty minutes. When I told him about my opportunity, I thought that he would be pleased with the idea but he did not really think much about it. He explained to me that his girlfriend lives on the way to the university. He picks her up every morning and according to him, they talked or listen to music during traffic which he really enjoys.
Interview 4:
I interviewed my roommate which has to be the exact amount of time as me in the bus when going to classes. She even has a car in Gainesville but never uses it to get to the university since there is never parking spots available. When I presented her my opportunity I was not even thinking about if she would like it or not since she always keeps complaining about how cold the buses are and how long they take to arrive. Sadly, she explained to me that she has been in Gainesville for almost three years and has adapted to the bus and parking system. A tram would only change and make everything more complicated. She would have to adapt all over again which she would find extremely annoying.
Interview 5:
I interviewed an old calculus professor of mine. His kids go to a private high school in downtown Orlando and he has to drive there every day twice. One time for bringing them to school and one time for picking them up. When I told him about my opportunity he was begging me not to pursue it. He said that even though traffic might get lighter over time, during the construction phase, the traffic would become worse than ever and he definitely would not want to lose more time than he already is.
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Inside the boundary
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Outside the boundary
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People who hate being stuck in traffic.
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People who enjoy being in traffic, because they can do other activities while being in it.
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People who want to arrive as fast as possible to their destinations.
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People who like driving cars and do not mind if they have to be a long time in
their cars than expected.
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People who believe that a tram has a positive influence on the environment since fewer cars would be circulating at the same time in the heart of a big city.
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People who think that the tram will cause more damage than benefice.
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Alexandro,
ReplyDeleteI see where a lot of your frustration could be coming from. The idea of a tram seems so practical to move a massive amount of people but many people are stuck in their ways and preferences. One conclusion I came to was that the hardest thing to break is a habit. For example, the girl that ritualistically uses the morning commute on her bus stop to catch up on the news is unlikely to actually every try anything different. This definitely is a hard thing to break because of her rhythm of using the bus constantly. I found that if you find people who haven't found a solution that they love and could adopt, that they are the best customers.
I thought that it was strange that people didn't prefer a tram instead of a bus. The first girl that said she uses bus to read the news paper and catch up on things I thought it was weird because I would much rather spend that extra time reading a newspaper in my home or sleeping a couple extra minutes. The people aren't ready for a change even though it would be a better on.
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