By: Andrew Dinh
Every morning, traffic seems to be a huge problem on Escuela Parkway. For the past three years, I have dreaded coming to school. I feared getting stuck in traffic. Leaving the house five minutes later than usual always meant waiting in a logjam of cars for an extra fifteen minutes. The congestion frustrates me, especially because solutions seem so simple.
Traffic arises and accumulates due to a myriad of factors, which include the cramming of three schools on one street, overpopulation, and only having one parking lot. Surprisingly, I do not think the driving ability of teenage students contributes to the problem. Lack of perceptive thought when designing the streets is to blame.
Whoever thought of building three schools all on the same street clearly did not have much foresight. Although the schools may differ in start times by half an hour or so, a measly thirty minutes does not allow enough time for traffic to disperse before it starts up again. As a result, traffic becomes a perpetual problem for an entire hour, starting at around 7:30 am and finally clearing up at 8:30 am. In light of Governor Jerry Brown’s decision to reject the bill to delay school start times because the issue was best left to local communities, the Milpitas Unified School District should consider staggering start times more to minimize daily inconveniences.
Having three schools on one street points toward the issue of overpopulation. MHS is clearly overpopulated, which causes two different problems. First, having too many students means having too many cars jamming lanes every morning to drop off kids. Second, more portables get built to accommodate classes that cannot be held in MHS buildings due to a lack of room. These portables end up taking space for potential expansion of the parking lot, thereby worsening traffic. One potential approach to reduce the student population is to build another high school. Expansion will help to relieve traffic by lessening the effects of overcrowding.
MHS has one student parking lot with only one point of entry and exit, which is ridiculous for a school of roughly 3,000 students. The parking lot at the X building, which was built recently, has not helped relieve traffic congestion either. As a result, movement of cars, whether it be while searching for parking spots or stopping in the extremely small strip of road labelled as a “drop off zone,” slows to a drag every day. The inconvenience of the parking lot leads students to find parking in the surrounding neighborhoods, which is not exactly great for MHS and the community. One possible solution is to expand the parking lot by paving over the outdoor basketball courts and building more points of entry and exit. Doing so would speed up the flow of traffic because there would be more room to maneuver, park, and drop off students. Although losing the blacktop courts may not be ideal for the PE department and aspiring basketball stars, it would be for the greater good.
Poor design and lack of prudence led to the daily occurrence of ridiculous traffic on Escuela Parkway. The solutions, which include further staggering school start times, making a new high school, and expanding the parking lot, are all long-term solutions. Though these ideas may be difficult to adjust to at first, anything is better than suffering in traffic.