At Garden City High School, a student trying to get home after school generally has to fight incompetent drivers and bumper to bumper traffic just to get out of the circle. On Oct. 12, the Pioneer exit was opened and suddenly, getting home was a lot easier. The pioneer exit out of the high school should always be open to students after school.
With one entrance and one exit, GCHS is a nightmare for drivers. If you don’t run to your car after school every day, you can expect to be caught in the circle for at least 15 minutes due to traffic. No one should have to wait that long just to leave school. On the day the exit was opened, everyone simply got in their cars and could leave the high school in five minutes or less, and this was with the increased traffic of athletes who didn’t have to go straight to practice. No matter how you look at it, keeping the pioneer exit open would save students, teachers and faculty valuable time after school.
In my last year at the high school alone, I can’t even recall how many accidents I’ve witnessed after school, almost all of them due to the heavy traffic. Student drivers get distracted when stuck in traffic and may not realize how close they’ve come to another vehicle. We have to ask the administration, how many accidents are too many before we take action? Does someone have to get seriously hurt before they address the issue? While it’s unreasonable to claim that accidents after school in the circle will stop happening, it’s fair to say that the amount of traffic-related accidents will be drastically reduced.
When the new high school was built, they put in the Pioneer exit for a reason. They spent the money on it, why shouldn’t it be used to help control traffic? Since they already spent the money and would only have to get a teacher or faculty member to open it every day, there would be no operation costs to the school. It seems wasteful to spend money on an exit that remains closed for most of the school year.
Keeping the exit closed causes heavier traffic, more accidents, and is wasting the money the city spent to build it. The solution to these problems is easy— simply open the exit every day after school and help control the traffic.
Olivia Hanigan is a trade and health academy sophomore. Contact her at hanigano@student.gckschools.com.
Garden City High School 