If you drive to school or are unfortunate enough to be driving on Balfour road between 7:00 and 8:15 am then you know the horrendous traffic and law breaking that occurs on a daily basis. What contributes to this traffic is a multitude of things mostly drivers cutting off other drivers so they don’t have to wait in the long line of cars, illegal U-turns, and dangerous driving practices of students and parents.  

  Is it really worth potentially risking the life of yourself and others around you in order to not be late to class. Is a life really worth not serving 30 minutes of detention or finding a decent parking place?

  “All the cars heading towards Adams and Heritage stay to the left but the problem is so many people try to cut into the line to avoid traffic, it causes a real hazard. People don’t want to be cut off so they stay super close to the car in front of them which is really dangerous in stop and go traffic where you can be going almost 40 mph to a dead stop,” said Alex Zagelow(12)

  For other students especially those on motorcycles it’s especially dangerous. Motorcycles don’t have the same stopping power, control, and ability to make sharp turns as automotive drives do. Given all the possible places along Balfour where a student can get cut off this makes driving to school potentially deadly for these young drivers.

  “Well the traffic sucks, especially being on a motorcycle. You get a mix of shy new teenage drivers, and angry rushed parents, who together make it a scary drive to school,” said Jamie Symkowick(12)

There are a multitude of solutions to help decrease the traffic around Heritage, most of which cost too much money the city just doesn’t want to pay.

  “I just try to avoid as much traffic as possible like leaving early and leaving a little later from school,” Hunter Hanson (12)

  This has been a consistent problem for as long as students can remember. This problem remains even when the safety of the students are at risk. As a student body we need to unite to show our community how big of a problem this traffic really is. What can be done is possible get donations to have dividers built so cars cannot cut in all along Balfour till the freeway, or possibly go to the nearest police station and donate money so an officer may work an extra shift to patrol this area at this time.