When students exit the building at 3 pm, they expect to be out of the vicinity of the area around 3:10. However, due to the nature of the busy parking lot, we are often left stuck in traffic far past 3:20 and even 3:30. This is a much-needed change to ensure the safety of our students and increase productivity in the parking lot.

For starters, a parent picking up their child has the easiest exit out of the parking lot. Why give the upperclassmen parking passes if they can’t even get out of the parking lot in a timely manner? It’s ridiculous. We have five lanes of traffic merging into one or two lanes when the parents just have a swift pick up and go lane. They don’t have nearly enough stop signs and they never let anyone in.

Assertive drivers will always get out of the parking lot faster than defensive drivers. If you have a defensive driver in front of you, prepare to be sitting for at least five minutes. They are always too shy or nice to claim their spot, which sucks for anyone behind them. Now I’m not encouraging them to drive unsafely, I’m just encouraging the idea of taking turns. Stop honking. That’s not going to help anyone get anywhere fast. The only time you should be honking is when someone starts to back out of a parking space before they look or when someone is trying to cut in when they know they shouldn’t. Be smart about your driving and know your surroundings before you feel the urge to step on the gas pedal. Yes, we all want to get out fast but no one is going to go anywhere if there is an accident.

How do we fix this problem of being stuck in traffic when we don’t need to be? Well, we could do a number of different things. We could make more exits because we already have so many entrances. The least we could do is even it out. I also think we should utilize our security guards. We have security guards to ensure student safety so a main way they could help with that is by guiding traffic at the end of school. This could ensure that one lane of traffic wouldn’t be sitting in one spot for more than five minutes. We could also make rules for certain lanes. For example, the right most lane could be a right turn only lane. That could save time by having people go around the intersection.

We, as a school, need to do better. There has to be easier ways to get out of the school parking lot without having to be stuck in traffic like we’re on a highway coming home after a busy holiday weekend. We want to go home!