Being able to drive is a very exciting time in any teenager’s life. There are many perks and freedoms that come with driving, and for many kids, one of these freedoms is getting to drive themselves to school. With so many kids driving to the same place at the same time, there is bound to be a little traffic. The problem comes when large groups of students are frequently late due to sitting in over 10 minutes of traffic. In a recent poll sent out to the Pennridge students and teachers, 67.2 percent of the people said that the on-campus traffic adds between 5-20 minutes to their morning drive. When I leave my house to go to the school for something like lacrosse practice it will take me anywhere from 7-10 minutes total to get to the school from my house. In the morning it takes closer to 15-20 minutes.

The main problem I have seen with the on-campus traffic stems from parents dropping off their kids. From an overabundance of parents dropping off kids causing lines backing all the way down 7th Street, to parents not following the rules and parking in kids spots to drop off their kids, these issues have been the main reason for traffic in the morning. I am not the only one who has noticed these issues either. Senior Danae Luecke will leave her house every day between 6:35 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and will still sit in major traffic due to the parent drop-off line every day. Due to the traffic, Danae has stated that she has been late to school at least twice every week. Danae is not the only student that has been late to school because of the traffic on campus. From the same survey, 74.1 percent of the respondents stated that they have been late to school multiple times because of the traffic as well.

Not only are students receiving tardies for being late, but the traffic is also an added stressor to many students in the morning. In a recent poll sent out to the students, 69 percent of students feel added stress in the morning due to the traffic on campus. There is only so much time in the morning and with each day I find myself needing to leave earlier and earlier. In order to have enough time in the morning to get ready for school, I have to wake up earlier and earlier. Staying up late doing homework, and then waking up early just to try and beat the traffic causes many students to lose sleep over this added concern.

The school has noticed the growing traffic problem and is creating a plan to take action to change it. Daniel Branch, a security officer at Pennridge has noted, “from personal experience, I’ve had to wait up to 20 minutes and several red lights to get through the light at 5th and Blooming Glen because of the number of cars waiting to drop their kids off.” He has also said that the main issue is just the volume of cars. Carpooling with friends or taking the bus are all ways that kids without parking spots can limit the traffic and create a more stress-free morning until we can make more permanent changes.