The sheer amount of buses and cars at Marriotts Ridge constantly causes traffic, much to the chagrin of students and staff alike. While most are just inconvenienced with less free time before classes begin, others are having trouble getting to classes on time. According to these students, there are many reasons why the traffic takes so long.
“When we turn into the street, it takes a while because the buses are there and cars are like not going at the times that they should,” sophomore Amy Kwong said.
The road is not designed to accommodate so many vehicles, so even if students start driving to school at an adequate time, they still may be late due to the number of people. As traffic keeps the students from arriving at school on time, it became a greater worry for students.
“I would get to school on time, cause it’s only a ten-minute drive, but because of the traffic, because there’s only one entranceway, it’s impossible to get to school on time and you get a tardy pass and it’s put on your record,” sophomore Sandrine Roh said.
Constantly getting tardies can affect students negatively as it is important to keep a good attendance record, and the worst part is that it is out of their control.
The buses are already cramped, and adding more would be troublesome since it adds to the traffic, but this is a safety hazard. Sophomore Sandrine Roh, who takes the bus, explains that she experiences a bus ride quite literally filled to the brim with students and is concerned about it.
“There are not enough buses. It’s… very unsafe to be standing up,” Roh said.
The reason why buses are cramped may be that students have no other way of getting to school.
Another issue has to do with high school start times being very close to certain work times for parents. So now, all the parents are coming in at the same time to get their child to school without being late for work; it is an incredibly short time frame for some, and it doesn’t help that traffic gets in the way.
The one lane, the number of people driving, and collision of buses and cars, could also be caused by the shared parking lot with Mount View Middle School used to start around the same time, and some middle schoolers’ parents drive to middle school early on, which caused even more people to be caught on the road. That is why, according to principal Dr. DiPaula, the school pushed back start times for that middle school,
“They already moved the middle school times back. That seemed to help,” DiPaula said.
There are ways to fix this issue, and, as the ones being affected, students have some ideas of their own that could help lessen the traffic.
“6:50-7:05 is when buses can go in and 7:05 to 7:15 is when cars can go in.” sophomore Jacob Cary said.
Making this big change would be difficult, but the proposed solution solves the problem of the buses mixing in with tons of cars. According to Roh, “Having an extra road [would help traffic] because there are multiple entrances where people could be dropped off. It’s dropped by half and now instead of 30 minutes, it’s 15 minutes. Just one extra road might be good enough.”
With traffic being a big issue for the school, the school will find a way to lessen the load. Students themselves, for now, and if they have the option, should consider going to school earlier than they usually do to avoid traffic.