Don’t be fooled by the aggressive honks, reckless swerving or the hostility and impatience that fills the parking lots and side streets, we are only “creating a safe, positive learning environment.”

Every time someone ignores methods of safe driving in order to get somewhere quicker, they are putting the safety of others around them in jeopardy. This is a recurring incident in the school parking lot.

Teenagers’ bad driving habits are a result of overconfidence paired with a lack of experience.

But hours logged behind the wheel won’t necessarily transform someone into an experienced driver. The parents who drop their kids off at school also contribute to the congestion. Before parents take offense, however, the blame isn’t solely on them. In their defense, there is no rule stating that they can’t stop in the middle of the street and shout goodbyes and have-a-nice-day’s as their kid slowly drags his or her feet out the car.

A set of rules might be the perfect solution, something that seemed so obvious and implied that it got overlooked.

These rules could help the parents and students who are unaware of things like the alternating rule in the parking lots. In addition to courtesy rules, the list could include simple reminders  like “looking before backing out is the key to not colliding with another car” for those who often seem to forget methods of safe driving.

Students who purchase parking passes should be required to read a “Parking Lot Rules” sheet. In addition, a copy of the rules should be inserted into every student handbook for parents’ viewing.

After establishing some parking lot ground rules, steps could be taken to make some physical changes.

The school buses provide quite a contradiction; they are a convenience for all those who ride them, yet they tend to inconvenience many of the other drivers. Some system should be implemented to keep the convenience of school buses but also ease further parking lot congestion.

If a “drop off” system was put in place, then the bus-riders and the parent-chauffeured students could get to school without infuriating young student drivers.

Since almost a fourth of the school’s population is dropped off at school, it seems only fair to accommodate them. Because the campus was initially designed for only three grades worth of students, the unanticipated additional 400 freshmen or so were left out of the equation.

Something like a designated drop off lane could ease confusion and congestion as well as prevent the parents from spending half their morning in the dreaded circle drive.

The parking lot also lacks proper signage. In and out signs, lane markings, and turning arrow markings could provide clarity, especially in areas like the circle drive and side parking lot.

As for the buses, a solution may just be moving them out of the way. Open land in front of the baseball fields or across the street could be transformed into a parking lot for the buses. The students could then get off and walk to school from the parking lots; the improvement to the frustrating traffic would be worth the minor amount of additional exercise.

Another source of the aggravating traffic is our limited exits and entrances. The solution to this problem would be more of an extreme fix but it is definitely worth the consideration.

Over at Lawrence High, the parking lots have multiple outlets that flow into three different roads, rather than two outlets that flow into one congested road.

Not to mention, additional outlets would increase safety in cases of emergency. On the day of the bomb threat incident two years ago, some spent over 30 minutes getting out of the parking lot.

Something needs to change to ensure the safety and sanity of the Firebird community.