Our school is currently facing a serious problem that many schools around the country are facing. With over 3,000 students, our crowded hallways have become impossible to navigate. Overcrowded hallways cause a wide range of issues from being fire hazardous to causing a large sum of tardiness. The only way to solve the hallaways crisis is to set up a highway courtesy system and have a longer duration of time between bells.
Having a highway courtesy system would establish the hallways as a highway with three lanes, speed limits, and route markers. For example, we would strike the hallways down with tape differentiating the lanes and have speed limits for each lane. Having distinguished lanes would also enable people to walk at their preferable speeds without feeling rushed or delayed. This would prove to be efficient and effective in ensuring the safety of students and faculty while minimizing hallway traffic.
To minimize hallway traffic there needs to be a longer duration of time in between passing periods. A longer duration of time in between classes gives students the opportunity to have a bit of a break between classes. According to a study done by Cornell University, “taking purposeful breaks from studying to refresh your brain and body increases your energy, productivity, and ability to focus.” There are also two other reasons why students aren’t able to make it to class overcrowded hallways and overcrowded restroom facilities. Giving students more time to get to class would decrease the number of students in the hallway after the bell and a significant number of tardies would decrease as well.
Many believe that having a new highway courtesy system would be futile and dismantle within weeks of establishment. However this would be disproven as many schools across the country are establishing systems as such to clear up many of their hallways and keep students in class instead of being stuck in the hallways. Having such a system in place would only increase the attendance in class and decrease tardiness.
Overcrowded hallways are slowly creating a major problem for leaving us with one solution. The only way to get rid of hallway traffic would be to set up a hallway courtesy system and give students a longer duration of time to get to class between passing periods. Having a system like this would prove to be efficient and effective in solving our crowded hallway crisis.
