If you’re no stranger to Wakefield High School, you may be familiar with the school’s student drop-off lane. It’s a complex loop around the faculty lot that leads into the middle school nearby. While the student-drop-off lane has been effective for many years, it remains inefficient and causes potential safety hazards during peak hours.
It’s 7:00 a.m. at Wakefield High School and parents rush into the student drop-off lane — which is also the faculty lot. Teachers pull into the parking lot as well, trying to squeeze into their assigned parking spaces. It is a never-ending chaotic battle in the parking lot. With parents and faculty urging to get themselves and their kids inside the building, the parking lot grows choppy with bumper-to-bumper movement.
Some people live by the saying, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” While our student-drop off-lane isn’t exactly broken, it’s not effective. Instead of the student-drop-off lane being in the faculty lot, it should be moved to Wakefield’s actual carpool lane by the front of the school. However, this would not be an easy thing to accomplish, as Wakefield uses the carpool loop at the front of the school for students who need assisted transportation. If Wakefield were to redesign drop-off to support a separate traffic flow from the faculty lot and student drop-off, it would also be easier for parents to roll in and out without the bumper-to-bumper traffic going through the middle school lot. This change can also have students leave school as fast as possible as there would not be any hazardous traffic on Wakefield Pines Drive that would interfere with the ongoing flow.
Instead of the student-drop-off lane being in the faculty lot, it should be moved to Wakefield’s actual carpool lane by the front of the school.
The use of the faculty lot doesn’t just stop at the student drop-off lane. Wakefield Middle School parents drive into the Wakefield High School faculty parking lot to pick up their students at 3:15 p.m. when their kids are let out. While this benefits the middle school parents from having to go through the student pick-up lane, faculty are still facing the difficulties of pulling out of the parking lot at the end of the day. With parents coming into the faculty lot after school hours, and staff trying to leave the building, there is immense chaos taking place.
As the daughter of a faculty member at Wakefield High School, I watch this interference every day, in the morning and the afternoon. The faculty lot is tight enough as it is, and with the added pressure of other cars trying to go against the flow of traffic, there are multiple safety hazards such as other cars speeding and not paying attention to the faculty trying to exit the lot.
Wake Forest High School is roughly ten minutes away from Wakefield with its separate section for student-drop off. Wake Forest High School displays its carpool procedure via Vimeo with a visual presentation of their arrival and dismissal traffic patterns. Throughout this video, they highlight the areas where to pull into the school, where the student-drop off lane is and where to exit the school. Their system does not interfere with faculty and student parking and is clear and orderly.
By moving our student-drop off lane from the faculty lot to the carpool loop at the front of the school, our traffic patterns with faculty and students and the middle school after the end of the day would be greatly improved. Wakefield can show the new traffic system via Vimeo or YouTube as Wake Forest High School did to provide students, parents and staff a safer and easier way to maneuver in and out of the school zone.
