In a young teen´s life, many look forward to hitting the roads. As more and more student drivers hit the road, the more dangerous it could be. In the Quakertown Community High School parking lot numerous student drivers come and go as the school day goes on. This causes a high risk of students´ safety in jeopardy. The idea of improving the parking lot has been circling school staff’s minds. Many staff members have either witnessed an accident or have seen firsthand the actions of student drivers. 

One staff member, Officer Lee, has shared his thoughts and opinions on the school parking lot. He stated, ¨We were thinking, at some point, adding like a speed bump just to slow down.¨ The input of speed bumps could help decrease speeding drivers who may be arriving late to school, or in general, just drive faster than they should. The production of crosswalks could greatly make the parking lot safer for students walking into the building. Donaldson Law states, “Vehicle-pedestrian collisions are a serious issue. While the first wave of teen drivers is backing out of parking spots, there are other teen drivers and passengers walking to their cars. If teen drivers are not careful about checking behind them and in their blind spots, they could easily back up into another student¨(Donaldson Law, LLC).

Another issue that is being faced in the parking lot is the risk of a car getting hit due to the size of the school parking spaces. Repaving the school parking lot could be helpful to make the spaces larger, but there is a high risk of running out of parking spaces. On the topic of repaving the school parking lot, Officer Lee stated, ¨Eventually we´re probably going to be numbering them and assigning them¨.  Although it could be difficult to repave it, the thought of using the parking space numbers could be beneficial as well. The use of the space numbers could help to make the traffic flow more smoothly.

 Following on from the parking lot size, there is an option to split students and staff into two separate lots. Making it easier for students to leave out of their lot, and teachers having their place to park when they arrive early in the morning. These changes could make a great impact on our school safety, but many of these changes would have to be taken care of during the summer. Though the changes can not be done before the end of the 2021-2022 school year, the changes could still make an influence on the following school years. 

Why would fixing the parking lot make it safer? Though the changes may not change how students and or staff drive, just the small impacts of speed bumps, crosswalks, and parking numbers could truly help to make students and staff feel safer driving near the Quakertown Community High School parking lot.