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Comparable Schools'
Transportation Grades:
Quick StatsBest Ways to Get Around TownHow to Get to the Airport
- A Cab Ride to Gainesville Airport Costs $15.
- Unfortunately, your choices are pretty limited—for Gainesville’s airport, you can drive yourself or take a cab; for the other two, you can drive or call a limousine service, such as Executive Limo at (800) 588-9693. The ride from UF to either Orlando or Jacksonville will cost you $125 plus gratuity.
College Prowler Take
Gainesville features a lot of ways to get around town. Everybody has complaints about the RTS buses—they don’t come on time, they don’t come at all, the drivers pack ‘em till it’s like standing in a sardine can and then stop short on purpose—but they’re free, they cover practically all of Gainesville, and the drivers might even take pity on you when you forget your student ID and let you ride anyway (maybe). But if the bus thing really isn’t your game, you can ride your bike. G’ville is consistently declared to be among the most bicycle-friendly towns in the country, with bike lanes pretty much everywhere. And of course, you can always walk; despite the size of UF’s grounds, getting around campus on foot is not as tragic as you think, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops within strolling distance. We’ve also got at least a couple of good ways to get out for a weekend. Air is not really one of them, unless the trip you’re taking is worth an expensive ticket from Gainesville or a pre-trip trip to Orlando or Jacksonville. Greyhound is slow and less upscale, but reasonably reliable and easy to get to from campus, although if you live in the areas served by the student-centered bus companies mentioned above, that’s probably your best choice. Amtrak can be maddeningly fickle—you’ll call once and find out the train’s five minutes away, but call five minutes later only to find that the train has mysteriously backtracked to two hours away. Regardless, the most important thing about all of this is to know that you can get where you’re going in and out of Gainesville. A word of advice: don’t even bother trying the “I had no way to get here” excuse, unless you want to poke your professor’s eye out with that ever-growing nose of yours. Students Speak Out
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Somewhere in between? Show the world what YOU think of YOUR school:
gatorgirl1 says: University of Florida 2016 Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies, and Humanities  |
The Later Gator bus can be a...
The Later Gator bus can be a hilarious ride from the clubs when it's full of drunk college students. I love it! Transportation is really good, but the RTS bus routes start slowing down close to 5 p.m., and waiting for the SNAP (the University escort service) can suck on weekends. They need to get more SNAP vans, I think.
Transportation: May 23, 2009
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Anonymous says: |
Public transportation carries...
Public transportation carries students within UF and all around the city. Many students take the bus to school from their apartment to avoid the hassle of parking. |
Anonymous says: |
The Gainesville bus system is...
The Gainesville bus system is constantly improving. Their biggest problem is reliability; there are plenty of times where the bus is very late or never shows up at all. They also can be very crowded on busy routes and during busy hours of the day. However, you can get almost anywhere you want to go at most any time, and it’s free of charge for students. |
Anonymous says: |
It’s not very convenient. It’s...
It’s not very convenient. It’s nice to have, and much better than walking or biking on a hot day, but it does take forever. It’s pretty hard complaining about something that is free, though, so I try not to. |
Anonymous says: |
RTS buses are very convenient for...
RTS buses are very convenient for UF students; they’re free! Don’t rely on them, though. It’s not rare for a student to miss a final because the bus never showed up. |
On-Campus Transportation
Buses on campus and throughout Gainesville; visit www.go-rts.com. Buses are free to UF students with their student IDs and include campus circulators that visit Park and Ride and Commuter lots as well as many campus buildings and Later Gator service downtown late on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The University pays RTS millions of dollars a year for all this service, and since it’s coming from your tuition, you should make use of it! Regional Transit System (RTS)
Taxi Cabs
Safety Cabs
(352) 372-1444
Greyhound
Their customers are almost all students going home for the weekend, and they stop at service plazas along the highway where excited parents and friends wait to pick their Gators up. These companies have a more limited schedule, only leaving on Friday afternoons and returning Sunday nights (except near vacation time, when they expand the schedule), but they do reverse trips (coming to Gainesville for the weekend— great for getting people to visit you), they leave from and bring you back to campus, and they’re inexpensive, really friendly, and not shady like Greyhound can be.
A little more than a mile from campus
Their customers are almost all students going home for the weekend, and they stop at service plazas along the highway where excited parents and friends wait to pick their Gators up. These companies have a more limited schedule, only leaving on Friday afternoons and returning Sunday nights (except near vacation time, when they expand the schedule), but they do reverse trips (coming to Gainesville for the weekend— great for getting people to visit you), they leave from and bring you back to campus, and they’re inexpensive, really friendly, and not shady like Greyhound can be.
Amtrak
One Amtrak station is in Waldo at Highway 301 and State Road 24 (Waldo Road). It’s about sixteen miles and half an hour’s driving time from UF. The other is in Palatka at 11th and Reid Streets. It’s about 47 miles and an hour’s driving time from UF, but it makes up for its distance from campus because it’s generally served at more convenient times than the Waldo station. One thing to keep in mind about the train is that you have to catch it at the train tracks—places not exactly known for their upstanding citizenry. If you have to wait for the train—and believe me, if you’re smart you will; trains sometimes come early and often come late, but it’s never a guarantee, so get there way before you think you need to—try to hang out in the car of whoever brought you. If you can’t do that, don’t stand alone if you can at all help it, especially at night. It’s not like there are murderers just waiting for your innocent, Amtrak-riding self, but still . . . watch your back.
Airport
It’s almost completely useless. There’s not enough room for a 747, so the only way to get here with an airline is to fly to Miami, Atlanta Georgia or Charlotte North Carolina and connect to a prop plane flight for Gainesville (the same holds true in reverse—those cities are your only three destinations flying out of here). It tends to be quite expensive and, even though they are very large commuter planes, nerve-racking for those of us who prefer airborne accommodations the size of Rhode Island. Gainesville Regional Airport (352) 373-0249
Is about 85 miles and an hour, and 45 minutes’ driving time from the University of Florida. Jacksonville International Airport (904) 741-4902
Is about 125 miles and two hours’ driving time from the University of Florida. Orlando International Airport (407) 825-2001
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