Introduction
You, as well as I, know that teenagers do not always make the best decisions while
driving, to say the least. North Harrison High School students are no exception, either. I
think you realize this and have taken precautions, such as speed bumps, to prevent
accidents, but there is one area that I feel has been neglected. I am referring to the area of
parking known as the “overflow” lots near the football field concession stand (see Figure
1). Here, I find many hazards:
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The absence of a sidewalk for pedestrians to use
A lack of signs and safety devices for pedestrians
People backing out into the road
A deficiency of parking blocks
Students driving exceedingly fast
Too much overall congestion
I parked in this area a total of around ten times my senior year (2001-02), and I narrowly
escaped being in an accident at least three times. In addition, the only time I felt
comfortable was when I waited a while for most of the other students to leave the lot
before I did. I never had a really close call when I was walking to or from my vehicle,
but I had to watch very carefully for traffic and never felt very secure.
Figure 1: The area as it is now
I observed students departing the area after
school on Friday, November 15, 2002 to be
sure nothing had changed. I found out that
just about nothing has. In fact, I saw good
evidence for my claim that this area is
dangerous. One student in the West
Overflow Lot seemed to get impatient, so
she forced her way into the road. This
caused a slight backup, and in the short
time the person was shifting gears, the
person behind her was trying to go around
to pass.
I am not alone in feeling the area is dangerous. When I asked Mark Kiesler, one of my
classmates who regularly parked in the area, if he thought it was dangerous, he
enthusiastically said it was. He particularly pointed out the speed at which students often
drove (Kiesler).
I understand the world is not perfect and is filled with danger, which is why we as people
have to be careful even in our daily living. On the other hand, I also believe people need
to take precautions to try to lessen daily dangers. In the case of the overflow parking
area, I feel that a lack of safety devices for pedestrians combined with an unsafe parking
design is putting students at risk for accidents, which could result in anything from fender
benders to death. Fortunately, it is my belief that this is one of those threats that can be
alleviated rather easily, and I have constructed a proposal that would do just that.
Problem
Pedestrians
A major danger has to do with the fact that there is no sidewalk from the North Parking
Lot to the overflow lots (see Figure 2 below). This leaves students with a choice: walk
on grass (which is often wet in the mornings) and then a mixture of gravel and very
irregular concrete or walk on the road, which is often filled with vehicles in which
students are rushing to get home or to class on time. The safer route is to walk beside the
road, of course, but at one point the fence surrounding the lagoon comes within about a
yard of the edge of the road, making for an uncomfortable squeeze when a car is passing
by. Many students choose to walk on the road. This is frightening to me as an onlooker
and a driver, knowing how much damage a vehicle can do to a person, even at low
speeds. One reason students choose to walk on the road instead of beside it is they like to
walk in packs, and there is not enough room for all of them between the road and the
fence. Another reason may be to avoid getting their shoes wet or dirty, since some
people spend ridiculous amounts of money on them. I realize this is not a good reason to
walk on the road. Nonetheless, I do believe this is one reason students do it, and it puts
them in danger.
A second problem strictly with pedestrians is the lack of signs where they cross the road
to go into the North Parking Lot. I realize a speed bump has been installed down the road
since last year, but students may still come through the area where pedestrians cross the
road at speeds of over 20 miles per hour. Also, vehicles coming from the north might not
see students in the road because of the turn (see
Figure 2 below).
The absence of a crosswalk to the West
Overflow Lot constitutes another problem
because students cross from one side of the road
to the other wherever they please. This adds to
the congestion and means drivers have to be
extra careful in watching for walkers, which
high school students do very well, anyway.
Figure 2: Problem Areas
Design
One design flaw in this parking area has to do with the orientation of the parking spaces
in the West Overflow Lot. As of now, the spaces are perpendicular to the road, which
forces people to back out of these spaces into the road. Directly after school, this is a
great hazard. A steady stream of cars coming from the south along with pedestrians on
both sides of the road leave little time for people to back out. This forces people to make
unwise decisions and reckless maneuvers, as I observed.
The problem is compounded by how the road and the East Overflow Lot are continuously
connected. No parking blocks separate any of the spaces from the road, which allows
students to pull out from anywhere. A possibility here is that two people could pull out
simultaneously in opposite directions, resulting in a crash. This very scenario very nearly
happened to me last year, but thankfully, both vehicles stopped before a collision. I
understand that if collisions such as these occurred, they would be at very low speed.
Nevertheless, they could turn out to be very expensive and surprisingly injurious to the
people involved.
Solution
Pedestrians
To solve the problem that there is
not a sidewalk, I would add on to the
pavement on the east side of the road
between the road and the fence. I
would also extend this pavement
“sidewalk” past the fence all the way
up to the East Overflow Lot (see
Figure 3). A white stripe would
need to be painted to distinguish the
road from the walkway. In
addition, diagonal stripes may need Figure 3: The Final Product
to be put on part of this area to
ensure no one parks here.
The reason for simply adding pavement instead of making a separate sidewalk is
convenience. In order to make a “real” concrete sidewalk, the fence would probably have
to be taken out and moved over, and I think adding the pavement is much easier. This
way may not be quite as safe as a sidewalk, but I believe it would get the job done in this
case because both vehicles and pedestrians have their own spaces rather than having to
share a space intended for vehicles only.
To ensure the safety of pedestrians as they cross the road into the North Parking Lot, I
would add one speed bump on each side of the road and one pedestrian sign on each side
of the road (see Figure 3). The speed bumps would be sure to slow all vehicles down,
and the signs should give more respect to pedestrians as well as tell why the speed bumps
are there. This should truly give walkers the right-of-way.
I would also add a designated crosswalk to the West Overflow Lot and add two roadwide speed bumps at the ends of the West Overflow Lot zone (see Figure 3). With the
crosswalk, drivers would only have to watch one particular place more closely, instead of
having to dodge a few students here and a few students there. The speed bumps would
reduce the speeds of drivers, thus, reducing the risk of accidents.
Design
As for parking in the West Overflow Lot, I propose to have the perpendicular spaces
changed to parallel and put them as far as possible on the side of the road. This would
accomplish two things. First, it would keep students from having to back out into the
road, which leads to frustration and impatience in all drivers. Second, the parallel spaces
would widen the road, making the area less congested and giving pedestrians more room
on the shoulders to walk.
I realize making this change would reduce the number of parking spaces. However, the
East Overflow Lot has plenty of open spaces on school days and could easily
accommodate the extra vehicles. For football games, more people may have to park in
the lots next to the school, but I do not see any problem with this at all.
You also might be concerned about the ability of inexperienced drivers to safely use these
spaces. To account for this inexperience, I would make the spaces slightly larger than
normal. Also, students seem to handle the parallel spaces in the Northeast Parking Lot
okay. These spaces would also give the students a chance to practice on this skill in order
to prepare for parallel parking in the “real world.”
The last improvement of this proposal is to use parking blocks to separate the road from
the East Overflow Lot. Twenty spaces now exist along the road, so I would place a
parking block at the end of each space. This would leave one place at each end for both
incoming and outgoing traffic, which I think is much safer than the existing setup.
Costs
I realize you do not have access to an endless flow of money to pay all the school
corporation’s expenses and have kept that in mind as I made up this proposal. Of course,
there are cheaper ways to try to correct this traffic problem, such as putting several speed
bumps throughout the whole area. However, I think several speed bumps would just be
another distraction in an already congested area. In addition, cost should not be the main
concern. Safety should be the number one priority, and I believe this proposal accounts
for both safety and expenses. Also, the $1600 for this proposal should not be too much
of a setback if the recent improvements you have made, such as the new baseball field
and football field, indicate the amount of money available. If you do question whether
this proposal would cost too much, though, compare its price with that of
someone’s life. See the table below for a summary of fees.
2 pedestrian
signs
$80*
2 galvanized
sign posts
$40
(Signs:
Regulatory)
(Signs:
Traffic)
Summary of Fees
6 short speed
20 parking
bumps
blocks
$360
$400
(Speed)
(Parking)
striping paint
paving
$25
(Hydrophast)
$700
(Elbert)
*prices are approximate
Justification
Being the school board, one of your main concerns should be the safety of your students.
I think you have proven this is true with the recent improvements you have made,
particularly those of you who were responsible for the parking lot renovation in 2001. I
think this is a similar situation. Before the 2001 renovation, people realized how
dangerous the bus drop-off zones were even though no one had gotten injured in them.
They realized something needed to be done before an accident occurred, and the board
acted by overhauling the whole front lot. Now, I believe I have spotted a potential
problem and think action needs to be taken in the near future. I don’t know about any of
you, but I sometimes find myself thinking, “Man, I wish I would have seen that coming.”
Do not catch yourselves thinking the same thing a few years down the road. Please
seriously consider this proposal and take some action before a tragedy occurs.