When I was a sophomore I got my license, and as a cautious driver, I found that our school’s parking lot was enough to cause high levels of daily anxiety. Like many other underclassmen, I park in the “back 40” of the parking lot. This is the parking lot that has the largest amount of students, and the largest percentage of young drivers. It is the wild west of parking lots, and very much has the dog eat dog world mentality.
Even as an upperclassman now, the parking lot is still my least favorite place. It reeks of immature drivers and low frontal lobe development. It’s a place that is void of traffic laws and any form of social etiquette.
Thankfully, the mornings in the parking lot are often subdued and much calmer. However, the after school rush is a whole other story. Students are often anxious to get as far away from school as possible as fast as possible and this is extremely evident in their driving. Cars of all types rev their engines, honk at their friends, cut people off, and dangerously weave through the crowds of people walking to their cars.
For me, it is a natural reaction to drive slowly in areas with lots of meandering people, but this reaction is not innate in everybody. Students going too fast and nearly hitting people is a common occurrence. Walking to your car requires constant vigilance, looking around you at all times, trying to avoid crossing paths with a reversing or speeding car.
As a sophomore, I would wait around twenty minutes before attempting to leave the parking lot, out of fear of being hit. But now as a junior, I find myself becoming more aggressive. I reverse at the soonest possible time and get in line to the overcrowded exit, although I am always careful not to hit unattentive pedestrians.
After getting in the line you need to attempt to join the main line. The traditional “zipper method” of merging is mostly forgotten. The zipper method is like a four way stop, with less lanes. The person who was there first should be allowed into the line. There have been instances where I’ve been waiting to merge for over 10 minutes, until one kind soul allows me to join the line.
The parking lot is dangerous and I know multiple people who have gotten in car accidents in the parking lot.
“Earlier this month, my grandma was driving me home in the parking lot and we were attempting to merge into the exit lane, and someone started reversing. They just kept going and hit our car and they gradually kept reversing backwards. They kept going even after they hit our car. Luckily our car wasn’t that damaged but it proves that we need to be more careful in the parking lot and more aware of our surroundings,” sophomore Angel Lawrence said.
It just takes one accidental hit to cause injury or even death. I think that the school should take parking lot safety more seriously and provide supervision to prevent accidents and reckless driving. The school police and other staff members who prioritize student safety should consider expanding their roles to after school as well.
