Picture this, you’re a highschool student at 7:00 on a Friday morning. You’ve had a long week of stressful days and late nights. You left later than usual, but as long as you get to school in the next 10 minutes you should be fine. Unfortunately for you, your school roads are horribly designed. While being only 2 miles from the school, you must sit in traffic for ten minutes, slowly make your way in, park, and then try to make it to your class on time.

Then, after school is finished, you are trapped in the parking lot until all the buses leave. Is there a better way? Does going to and leaving school have to take fifteen minutes more than it should every day? In order to increase efficiency and improve traffic flow, Plymouth South must improve the roads around the school. 

One of the biggest problems is getting to school. In the morning, a line of cars filled a long pond road, all of them sitting in traffic, waiting to get to the school. Traffic builds up here because cars are slowing down in two locations, once as they turn into the campus, and the second at the four way stop. Roadways must be designed in order to keep the number of stops to a minimum.

I propose a rotary in place of the four way stop. It would allow drivers to continue through the intersection without backing up traffic all the way down long pond road. 

The second issue with traffic flow is the gridlock that occurs after school. Drivers must all leave from the same road, making traffic back up throughout the parking lot. I believe that the one way roads that go around the school should be expanded, allowing for cars to exit from both sides. A bus lane may also be beneficial in order to increase efficiency. 

While I understand that school zones are designed to be safe for drivers and workers, there are still ways to design the roads that allow drivers to go slow, while promoting efficiency in entrances and exits. In order to increase efficiency and improve traffic flow, Plymouth South must improve the roads around the school.