An NDB junior nervously waits in line at the DMV. They are 16, and incredibly desperate to get their license. After climbing in the car with the employee giving the test, stopping carefully and completely at each stop sign and obeying all rules of the road, they get the terrific news that they passed the test! After all those hours of Driver’s Ed, the dreaded permit test and stressful driving session with parents, the hard work has finally paid off in the form of a beautiful little vertical driver’s license. So the next day, they hop in the car, turn on the music and drive themselves to school. Tunes blasting, sun shining, a smile on their face, everything is perfect! Until… It is time to park.
Unfortunately, the Junior Parking Lot is not made for junior drivers. The excitement of earning one’s license is quickly diminished by the many challenges of the parking situation.
Having fresh-out-of-the-DMV drivers parking side by side on gravel in between metal poles and leaning trees is never a good idea. Many juniors have already had some run-ins with the poles so far this year.
The Junior Parking Lot is the only reasonable place to park, since other location options are slim. Parking on the street in the neighborhood across NDB is forbidden, parking in front of the school is allowed, but at the cost of the nightmare 3:00 dismissal with freshmen’s parents zipping around like honey bees and parking by the soccer field is not permitted. That leaves just the trusty old Junior Lot.
To leave enough room for everyone, two cars must park between each set of poles and trees. It can be a tight squeeze, which means there is not a lot of room for error.
Junior Alexis Anderson shares her experiences with parking. “I would say my experience with the junior parking lot has not been very good. I think it’s difficult to park in, especially for new drivers who have recently gotten their licenses, which is the majority of the junior class,” she said.
Anderson added, “My experience was that I was going to park, and I specifically got in there early, to get a spot, and one of the only spots remaining was between another car and a pole. That’s where I chose to park, and when I was going to pull in, I was focused on making sure I had enough space for the car next to me. So I ended up scraping the front corner of my car underneath the light on the pole. I just think that the junior lot is a very difficult space to park in, especially for brand new drivers who don’t have as much experience driving and parking,” said Anderson.
A solution that many juniors would be grateful for is replacing the metal poles with “flex posts”, which are bendable plastic poles that bounce back after impact, and can be found at low prices. This way, parking spots could still be marked out, but the inevitable spatial miscalculations would not result in expensive damage to students’ cars. One small change could make a huge difference for juniors.
Junior drivers are new drivers. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before a majority of new drivers will have some sort of ding or accident. While everyone has to learn to pull into tight spots, and improvement will come over time, avoiding challenges with a few simple changes makes the learning process more seamless.
