With the start of a new school year comes even newer problems. You don’t have to look too far to see that there is one very apparent issue in the Niles West parking lot: parking. Every day by 7:45 a.m., Oakton Street is polluted with people trying to get to school. As you could expect, this is extremely annoying. This problem did not exist in my previous years at this school, so it leaves me to wonder, what happened?
As far as I know, the back parking lot is closed this year for students and parents to enter. Naturally, this would cause significant parking congestion. I still do not know the reason for this extremely annoying closure of this entrance.
As someone who drives to school and uses the parking lot daily, starting the day off with a headache isn’t something that is very favorable. I usually leave my house and get to school around 7:45 a.m. so I can make my first-period class without hesitation. Google says the drive from my house to school should take seven minutes. By the seventh minute of the short drive to school, I would expect to be out of my car and walking towards Door 24. However, the current parking situation begs to differ. Google is correct, in that time I do arrive at school after a seven-minute drive, but I don’t exit my car for at least another ten minutes. The parking lot is riddled with cars filled with parents and students alike, all trying to either go to the drop-off zone or find a parking spot. It also doesn’t help that a significant amount of drivers in this area don’t have sufficient driving skills. I’ve almost been crashed into multiple times while my car was stationary because certain drivers don’t seem to have the ability to see. There even was a three-car accident last week, and I was able to identify all of the students involved. As much as I want to continue to complain about the monstrosity that the parking lot is, I should probably just cut to the chase.
This might upset whoever is reading this, but I feel that the main reason the parking lot is so packed is that kids are too scared to take the buses. The majority of people that I see in the parking lot are parents either dropping their kids off at school or picking them up. For someone who actually uses the parking lot, and pays for a parking pass, having the parking lot full of people who don’t actually need their parents to drive them is extremely frustrating. Sure, the buses aren’t perfect, sometimes they’re late, and being around a bus filled with students isn’t the most comfortable situation. Although, I have never experienced any sort of issues using the buses at school. I used the buses for my first three years of high school, and each day, I was able to get to school on time, get a free breakfast from the cafeteria and still have time to spare. Sometimes the buses don’t come right after school, but no source of public transportation is always on time every day, no matter if you take taxis, trains or public buses.
Every time I ask someone why they don’t take the bus, they say that the buses are “weird”, but never give an actual reason why the buses are “weird.” I’ve come to the conclusion that most students are simply lazy. Not only will students save their parents large sums of gas money if they start to use the buses, but they will also learn how to be comfortable with public transportation, a valuable skill for when they grow up.
If you’re a student reading this, don’t be afraid to take the bus, let your parents sleep, and give your fellow students who actually drive to school a chance to use the parking for once.
