Hallway Congestion Disrupts Traffic Flow
Students find it difficult to maneuver through the crowded hallways between periods
The hallways of the high school between classes are often crowded with those who stop to socialize, impeding students trying to get through.
Navigating the hallways of Shaker Heights High School between classes is like navigating through a maze.
Students have only four minutes to get through the halls to their next period class, often needing to stop at their lockers, to get a drink or to go the restroom on the way to their next period class.
Unnecessary hallway congestion can make navigating the hallways tricky. What makes it even worse are those who stop to socialize.
Freshman Colin Boyle said, “When I’m rushing to get to class I really am bothered by people walking on the wrong side of the hallway and stopping in the halls because it creates unneeded congestion.”
“It’s really frustrating when you need to get somewhere and people just stop in the middle of the hallway, junior I’anna Smith said. “It makes it hard to get through.”
Freshman Greta Bauer finds the hallways hard to maneuver.
“When I go from my upstairs class to downstairs people are always hugging and they’re standing there in the middle of the hallway on their phones, sometimes taking pictures,” Bauer said. “It kind of makes me wonder if they ever get to class on time because they’re just really slow moving. It’s annoying because everyone is trying to get around them but they just seem oblivious to everyone else.”
“It can be a big problem, especially depending on the location of your locker,” said freshman Zak Reape. “It can be difficult to try to get something [from your locker] with lots of people crowded around and walking really slowly.”
Students think the hallway dwellers should be more considerate of those trying to get through.
Junior Cheyenne Vazquez thinks the hallway dwellers “are kind of rude and they don’t really pay attention to people. Some people have to go to classes that are all the way across the school.”
Sophomore Laura Parsons agreed. “They create a bottleneck type traffic which takes a long time to get through. They’re oblivious and they don’t care about those around them trying to get through the halls.”
“I think they’re annoying and need to be aware of other people,” said sophomore Caroline Walsh. “I think it’s very selfish of them to hold up other people.”
Students also contend that hallway inconveniences such as hallway dwellers affect their punctuality.
“Sometimes I was actually late to class because some people would stop and it would cause a crowd in the hallways and slow down the traffic, making it hard for me to get through,” Vazquez said. “Security tried to tell them to keep going but then they’ll just stop somewhere else.”
“I think they’re inconsiderate because when you only have four minutes to get to class, and they block the halls, it makes people late,” said junior Rhamir Montgomery. “I get too many green passes in the hallways sometimes because of the people blocking the halls.”
The new tardy policy introduced to the high school in the start of the 2015-2016 school year requires that late students must retrieve a green tardy slip from one of the security guards before returning to class.
“It makes me late to class because I can’t get around them,” Bauer said. “I feel like maybe they need more motivation to get to class.”
When asked for alternatives to help hallway traffic flow more efficiently, students suggested a crackdown on security.
“Maybe each one of the security guards could each have one of the hallways or a corridor to monitor and to really make one of their goals to really make sure that traffic can move more fluidly. I feel like that might help,” Boyle said.
Walsh believes that the staircases are the root of the problem.
“I think they need to work on a system for the stairwells, because the doorways are just too small and it gets pretty confusing,” said Walsh. “I think the flow of traffic needs to be fixed there especially.”
However, these alternatives are proposed said than enforced in a high school as large as Shaker.
“It’s tough to enforce rules against this behavior in such a large school,” said Junior Tyler Smith.
“If we can find a way to get them to keep traffic flowing in the halls,” Vazquez said, “then I’m all for it.”
Raider Zone Editor Alexa Jankowsky contributed reporting.
