Recently, we had a few rainy mornings here at Bowie. Whenever it’s raining, the traffic outside our school gets much worse than usual, like Mopac in a traffic jam. As a person who rides the bus during these rainy days, I always end up being late to class and getting wet in a bus that doesn’t have an air conditioning system. I imagine everyone in campus has felt this feeling at least once in their school year.

So what’s causing this insane traffic surge? On rainy days, traffic seems to increase on the roads outside of school, not just on the roads leading up to the school and people who don’t usually drive decide to bring their own car. So, in my opinion, more students ride cars instead of buses, which is why there’s so much traffic on a rainy school day.

Considering those students who ride a car to the school, I think the issue derives from lots of freshmen who get a ride from their parents since they can’t drive themselves. Some sophomores, juniors, and seniors are able to drive, and they’ll usually carpool with their friends if they are driving to school. For freshmen, their parents are most likely not going to pick up other friends way to school. So, if most of the freshmen ride in their parent’s car, the road is going to be a disaster.

We can’t just blame certain group of people for this problem. Of course, those selfish people have some responsibility to this problem, but in my opinion, the school holds some responsibility for this problem. Bowie also has a duty to step up and try to solve the traffic.

The school should at least try to encourage students to ride the bus rather than having parents giving students a ride. Some things the school could do is provide a better bus environment for students, such as an improved air conditioning system or windows that actually closed tightly so they can have a comfortable ride to school, which would eliminate the need to take a car.

Another solution the school could implement could be to open an extra lane for only buses in the mornings, so that way people who ride bus have some kind of advantage. That could attract people to ride a bus because they don’t have to be stuck in traffic jam in the morning.

For the people who are dropped off to school by their parents, the school should provide a drop off space on the sidewalks so the cars don’t have to come all the way into the campus. This would help smooth out the traffic. When hundreds and hundreds of cars are trying to get into the campus parking lots, it’s an absolute disaster. If we give them a space to drop off students before entering the campus, it’s going to be improve traffic flow for everyone.

I respect some people’s’ thoughts and I don’t think certain people should be blamed for this. Ultimately, the traffic flow issue is contributed by a multitude of people, not just one group. School should encourage students to ride the bus by giving bus riders some advantages, and if all students would become a little bit more selfless, there will be less morning traffic on a rainy day.