Gunderson’s Great Car Derby

Gunderson’s after school rush hour can turn deadly at any turn

Quan Nguyen, Staff Writer

Gunderson High school over the last 3 year has been known for its chaotic pick-up routine every single day of the week cars around Gunderson all conflict with each other to pick up their children.

This dance between both students and drivers happens on a daily basis and most people at Gunderson have become used to the risks involved for both parties. Although student driver safety is important it’s also an important  reminder as citizens to do our part.

Chynoweth Avenue is one of the only ways out of Gunderson for moving vehicles to reach their homes and unfortunately for the school body of Gunderson this is the same way students have to travel in order to leave school.

An anonymous teacher that leaves school soon after the bell said that, “Students will just walk right in front of your car at the crosswalk while staring at their phone not even looking.”

Quan Nguyen

Seeing this might mean that Gunderson’s after school problem may be caused by its own student body is concerning, to say the least, for the general safety of everyone around. That’s not to say that all students that walk are to blame but a portion of student who do walk might be contributing to the problem.

“Part of the problem is that people don’t understand how to flow together, merge together,” stated the anonymous source.

Gunderson is located along a four way stop sign intersection in order to exit leaving drivers in a difficult situation trying to figure out an appropriate time to leave between the flow of traffic.

On top of that drivers have to quickly decide in a split second actions depending on the flow of traffic, time constraints, and the constant rush of incoming students turning this daily procedure into a grueling juggling task every day.

Ideas on how to improve Gunderson’s current situation have been left in the air as to how safety should be dealt.

Currently, Gaundabert Lane is labeled with signs stating no parking from 7am – 4pm, this same area is also the location of many parent drivers looking to pick up their children. This becomes a problem since the same location is also used for school buses to pick up children that live farther away. The same anonymous teacher suggested that we “could talk to the city, and have them paint the curb [along Gaundabert Lane] … [so that it] might be considered a unloading and loading zone.”

The main reason why Gaundabert Lane affects Gunderson’s traffic problem is that it connects back to Chynoweth which is the only reliable way out of Gunderson. The effects of poor city planning and human nature led to this current situation.

This combined with the fact that Gunderson students and parent drivers encourage this type of behavior on a day-to-day basis is asking for the worst to happen. It’s only a matter of time until one of these after school conundrums turn deadly causing major harm. In the end it really comes down to how much we truly value safety within our community. The real question is: Do you?