By Maya Markowitz – Social Media Editor 

Jonathan Law has four parking lots available for the student population as well as for faculty and staff. One of the parking lots is dedicated to teachers and staff and one is meant to be for senior students, leaving two lots for general use. 

School policy states that in order to protect the cars of faculty and staff, students should not park in that lot; however, their other options are extremely limited. The main student parking lot, by the auditorium, becomes full before 7:15 a.m. and it takes up to 10 minutes to get out at the end of the day. Oftentimes, when the lot fills up, students park illegally of desperation. This leaves students eager to leave class on time and even early. Ultimately, the parking lot distracts students from completing their day as they anxiously await near the door come the end of class. 

The flow of traffic is particularly troublesome in the morning. Parents who drop students off before and after school will often pull into businesses nearby to avoid going near the parking lot and getting stuck in traffic during its peak. This disrupts the flow of traffic to these businesses and creates an overflow on to the adjacent streets. 

The student parking lot has seen several accidents both before and after school as students pull in or out in a rush to get to class or to their after school activities. Students even made an Instagram page featuring all of the parking mishaps in the lot which was a humorous way to shed light on the concern at hand. 

With a large number of new drivers, the school should have a way to make sure that everyone is safer at the end of the day. 

Some of the ways that Law could approach this is by expanding parking options to students, so they are not all concentrated in the same place at the same time. Another option would be to slightly change the traffic patterns so that the pick up line does not have to merge with the line already consisting of students from the senior, regular, and small top lots. 

These solutions are easier said than done, however, it is an investment that everyone will benefit from.