This time of year, traffic at Leesville becomes worse with each passing day. Teachers and students love speculating on what exactly causes the delays, but no one can quite find a resolution, and that’s why The Mycenaean has decided to present some solutions to the traffic.
First, one cause is the sheer number of sophomores driving to Leesville this time of year that slows traffic down. While this might be true, we can’t eliminate the sophomores drivers. However, we can discuss different traffic patterns that would increase the flow of traffic, no matter who’s driving.
One solution would be to open up two lanes of traffic each morning turning off Leesville, onto O’Neal and into the student parking lot. This would allow the people coming from Leesville Road to turn into the left lane and the people from O’Neal to turn into the right lane without stopping too frequently. The school could hire Raleigh Police officers to direct traffic both at the student parking lot exit and at the Leesville / O’Neal stoplight. The solution would not only be cost effective, but would be simple for the non-student drivers: don’t allow them into the student parking lot access road if they are trying to get out before 7:25. For the assisted living transport vehicles, they would just have to stay put in the circle until 7:25.
Then, there’s the possibility of adding a new entrance into and out of the student parking lot. This would be more challenging and large in scale but would allow for two points of entry. The new entrance would need to be constructed outside of the back of the parking lot. There is a 30 yard length between the fence and the road, and that wouldn’t be overly expensive to pave. The school would need to address adding a traffic light or hire an officer to direct traffic after school. The negatives would be for those commuting to work, but that could be addressed at another time if they needed to add a lane or two for those not turning into school in the morning.
Of course, there is also the diplomatic approach. This would include going around and talking about leaving for school earlier, driving more efficiently, and not using shortcuts that only end up making traffic worse. However, encouraging people to arrive earlier has been tried before and not much has changed based on our observation. Announcements have been made time and time again, but the reality is that there is still a line of cars each morning at 7:25.
So with all of this said, The Mycenaean would be highly interested in seeing a solution to ways school traffic can be reduced. Many students in this very class have to leave at 6:30, 55 minutes before school, in order to beat the traffic into our own student parking lot. That is time that we could be sleeping, which is what our teachers tell us is most important all the time. So, if the school district is serious about us getting our sleep, they will also find time to solve the school traffic situation.
