4:00 p.m. 

It was 25 minutes after school got out, and I was still sitting in my car, halfway through the line that snaked around the student parking lot. I anxiously watched the clock. 

4:01 p.m. — 10 cars in front of me. 

4:05 p.m. — six cars. 

4:07 p.m. — four.

Finally, I drove out of the parking lot, away from the school, 36 minutes after the last bell rang. 

This isn’t an issue unique to me; this is a problem that affects everyone who parks in the never-ending student parking lot. To remedy this, the school should find a way to provide more student exits to make it more efficient and safe.

The Hawk Eye surveyed 90 students in a poll. Of those who responded, 46.4% said they have an after-school job and 56% said they get out of the student parking lot later than 4:00 p.m. As a student with a job myself, one of the most stressful parts of my day is racing the clock to make it to my shift on time — an hour and 25 minutes after school gets out. 

A second exit could make this process much quicker. Instead of trying to fit everyone into one line — which has to wait for a safe opening on Charles St. before turning — finding a way to direct half the student traffic in another direction could cut that time in half.

Another exit would also be beneficial to student safety because it may reduce the amount of near-collisions occurring every day. The single line to get out requires cars to properly yield to right-of-ways as six lines merge into one by letting one person in every other car. This method, while incredibly inefficient, would at least be safer if high schoolers weren’t trying to ‘cheat the system’ by pulling up only inches away from the car in front of them to avoid letting someone into the line. 

Desperate to leave, students will play a game of chicken until one car lets the other go in front of them. The cycle repeats, cars brushing closer and closer to each other as the line grows longer, creating an environment way more dangerous than appropriate for a high school campus. 

While efficiency is not always guaranteed when there are so many students trying to get out of the same parking lot every day, this is a problem administration should be aware of and actively attempting to solve. 

An extra 30 minutes a day doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s something we can never get back.