Every morning at OH, as students and teachers are rushing to school, one of the problems that occurs is backed-up traffic. It leads to students being late and creates unsafe situations where students are walking between cars, trying to get to class.
“When I get to school, traffic is not that bad, but around 7:05, it’s horrible,” said OH senior Cole Gaston.
When the 7:20 bell rings, many students (admittedly even I) are just walking in Door 11. Then, because the doors are then locked, we have to walk around the school to Door 1 just to enter the building.
“The traffic is always backed up, no matter what time in the morning,” said OH senior Bryson Norwood. “I’m late at least once a week.”
One solution many people and I constantly think of, since the traffic starts around 7 AM, is just to come in earlier. As much as this could work, it isn’t realistic since not many students wake up early enough and some teachers have a commute to work where getting up earlier isn’t feasible due to daycare or family needs.
“I think the school [is not able] do anything because [that land near the back parking lot] is not in [the school’s] property line,” said Gaston. “Same with the gravel lot. If you complain, it doesn’t matter because the park district owns it, and they can’t do anything about it.”
Another solution for a new option ,which I think is the best idea, was proposed by OH teacher Ryan Pentzien. Pentzien devised a plan to diverge traffic into two lanes drop-off and parking.
This plan is more than enough to create a safe environment and create less traffic between students and cars, therefore making it safer and more efficient for morning traffic.
“One thought I had was to give the inbound traffic both lanes, where drop-off would be separate from student parking and loop around with buses,” said Pentzien.
“Currently, the lot already has dedicated space for drop-off by the greenhouse, but the drop-off cars are required to drive past all student parking, and also cross over all student foot traffic,” he added. “As it is, the drop-off line slows, and is slowed by, drivers and walkers.”
There are many solutions students or the school can do but it depends too much on human willpower. Many students won’t commit to waking up early, but on the flip side, the school also may not do anything either if it is too expensive.
Students should take it upon themselves to try and limit the risk of being late. Many students at OH can come up with those ideas to help our student drivers.
It’s never too late to try.
I'm Enzo Elia and I really enjoy video games and talking about many topics. this is my first year on staff, I'm a senior. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
[…] a strong showing of student voice, OH made this change due to a student-authored 42Fifty article discussing the need to fix traffic, and OH listened to its students. With this change, schooling […]