You put your car into reverse and start to back out. Before you know it, another car comes speeding from the left, passing within inches of your rear bumper. You brake suddenly to avoid a collision, your heart in your throat. Exhaling shakily, you start pulling out again and start down the road leading to the exit. As you drive along, a car runs through a stop sign to cut in front of you. You brake hard again, watching in shock as the driver doesn’t even acknowledge you. You pull out onto the main exit road and stare at the line in front of you. Countless cars fill the road, crawling forward an inch at a time. You stare at the clock; it’s been six minutes since you pulled out of the parking lot and you’re still not at the front of the line. You lay your head against the top of the steering wheel whispering, “Dismissal is a mess.”
Everyone seems to agree that getting out of school is a problem. From what I’ve seen, the major issues can be divided into two categories: safety and time.
Safety
The most pervasive problem seemed to be reckless drivers.
“People speed through the lot as I walk to my car.” Alyssa Matharoo, a senior driver, said. “They just go too fast.”
Often when I’m on my way home from school, I witness people speeding and driving recklessly in the parking lot. I’ve witnessed people speeding through the crosswalk right in front of me as I was about to cross, at best only acknowledging me with a glance and a cursory hand wave as I came within inches of their car hitting me, and at worst completely ignoring me.
“Some people suck at driving and it scares me personally,” said Joaquin Matter, another senior driver.
I don’t think that the majority of Lightridge students are the problem. Most of the time, I feel relatively safe. However, it only takes one bad apple to ruin it for the rest of us and it’s clear that something needs to be done about this problem.
Some students also don’t stop at stop signs. I’ve personally witnessed a very close call just the other day in the parking lot. Someone ignored the stop sign and almost T-boned the driver going straight. Not great.
Time
Apart from safety, the biggest inconvenience for our students seems to be the sheer amount of time it takes to get out of the school. Waiting at the stop sign at both of the school exits can take an incredibly long time. Attached to this article is a video of me waiting in the line to get out of school. It took me over seven minutes to get from the pick-up area to the roundabout. This is too much time to spend waiting in a car to get out of school. Sometimes the only way to combat this problem is to ignore this problem.
“I actually sit in the parking lot till most people leave and then drive off,” said junior Benson Powell.
Also attached to this article is a video of dismissal from a bird’s-eye view. It shows that pick-up after school takes a really long time and that the sidewalk is too narrow to be shared between both bikes and pedestrians, with bikers often passing dangerously on the grass.
I’ve come up with a few solutions to these problems. These solutions are outlined below and further illustrated in the interactive presentation.
Area One: Parking Lot
I know the inclusion of a bike lane in this plan might raise a few eyebrows, especially given the cost of widening the sidewalk to accommodate the lane, but the existing conflicts between people and bikes can be solved with this lane. It can also encourage more people to bike by making bicycle infrastructure more visible. This can reduce the CO2 emissions and the traffic volume at our school because less people might choose to drive.
Area Two: Front Exit of School
The inclusion of a roundabout at the intersection of Collaboration Drive and Lightridge Farm Road will increase the flow of traffic and help buses and cars get out faster. This will increase the desirability of taking the bus, decreasing CO2 footprint by getting people out of their cars, as well as allowing drivers to get home faster.
Area Three: Back Exit of School
The new design of the intersection between the bus loop and Hovatter Road makes it clear that cars need to yield to buses and increases the desirability of taking the bus, decreasing CO2 footprint by getting people out of their cars.
Area Four: Back Exit of School Continued
The inclusion of a roundabout at the intersection between Hovatter Road and Lightridge Farm Road will increase the flow of traffic and help buses and cars get out faster. This will increase the desirability of taking the bus, decreasing CO2 footprint by getting people out of their cars, and allowing drivers to get home faster.
You could probably read this article in the time that it takes to get out of the school. In fact, you probably haven’t even passed Hovatter yet. It is vitally important that we improve the lives and safety of our students by improving dismissal at our school.
