In the past few years, the difficult parking situation at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has escalated immensely. The senior and junior parking lots have endured this issue because of the increasing number of students with the privilege of parking in those lots. Offering more parking for students and staff will resolve many of the major parking issues on campus and overall make it a lot easier to get to and from school every day.
According to the MSD yearbook in the 2022-2023 school year, there were about 867 freshmen, 894 sophomores, 839 juniors and 828 seniors enrolled at MSD. With only two relatively small sized parking lots designated for students, only limited spots are available.
Being able to park in these desired lots offers a freedom to students that they have never had before. This freedom allows students to grow up and mature for their futures. Also, there is an increasing number of students every year that get their driver’s license and want to drive to school.
Sophomores, for instance, often get their license during their sophomore year, increasing the number of cars in the junior lot as the school year progresses. This can lead to a major problem because now the school is packing its lots to their full capacities, causing even more traffic problems.
Due to traffic, students might end up being late to class or before and after school activities. These issues may require students to have to leave for school earlier to secure a parking spot in the morning. Increased traffic in the parking lots also raises the chance of car accidents.
The junior lot is currently at North Community Park, a park next to MSD, and is shared by sophomores and juniors. Due to the growing number of sophomores and juniors who have cars, as well as it being a public park, the parking lot can get super overcrowded.
Various members of the community have expressed their concerns with this issue, leading the school board to propose some solutions; however, they have not really been going through with them. For example, some have proposed that after they knock down the 1200 building at MSD they should make it a parking lot, but as of now that is only a proposition.
Most of the parking lots at MSD have not been redesigned since the opening of the school in 1990. Back then, there were a lot less students at the school and the layout of the parking lots worked. In the present day, the placement of the parking spots leads to major traffic jams for the students and staff.
The parking lots usually are the most crowded after school because of the large number of students who park there all trying to get out at the same time. It could take students at least 10 minutes to get out of the lot.
Most of the year, band practices in the senior lot for their various competitions. If there is a traffic jam when the band is trying to practice, that can affect how they learn their drill and music.
After school activities are also a factor in the parking issue. For example, sports games are a nightmare to find a parking spot for due to the limited parking and large number of people trying to watch the games. This is such a problem during the football season that they have to send some cars to the overflow parking lot at Westglades Middle School.
Although this may seem like a small problem, it needs to be dealt with. There are many places where the school could put another parking lot or reconfigure the placement of the current spots. Solving this parking crisis will make things run smoother at MSD and stop many of the major traffic jams endured at the school that hinder the movement of students and staff.
