This year LHS has added more parking spaces for the students in the area where the buses originally lined up for dismissal. Up to last school year Lincoln High School had designated parking spaces for the students, by the side of the school. This has added 30 parking spaces for the juniors and seniors.
The addition of the added parking spaces are an improvement from last year, and LHS has received positive feedback from the driving student population of the school.
“I remember last year was awful,” said senior Liliana Abramek. “The senior parking lot had overflow because there were so many of them and then to make matters worse, some of the juniors parked in the senior lot so there was overflow of seniors into the junior area and then people were parking on the grass and it was all really dangerous. Then this year the added spots helped to get the junior registration sooner and more people can park so there is no more overflow.”
LHS’s admin saw the problems arising from the crowded parking last year, and took initiative to change the situation to help the safety of it all this year.
“Last year there were a lot of [parked cars],” said Assistant Principal Marc Cobb. “It was tight, people parking in fire lanes, people parking in crosswalks…. This year, after we have all the seniors get their parking passes and the seniors set up, we noticed that there were a lot of extra space in the parking, in that side lot and in the back lot, and a lot of juniors parking up on River Road and across the street, and so we decided to try to bring more people back into campus. So we started out with 30 spots for juniors.”
The added parking lanes for the cars were previously bus lanes and therefore have elongated lines painted to fit the length of the buses. Since the buses will no longer be parked there for dismissal, there is a chance they could be repainted for the cars.
“We will probably repaint the lines,” Cobb added. “That’s the goal. However, the only time that we can really do that is during the summer, and there’s a lot of maintenance projects that go on over the summer, so it all depends on the availability of the people that do it. Because it would make more sense, we’d probably get even more spots out of there if we redraw the lines, but it’s not a high-priority target over the summer because there may be schools that need work done too.”
The school staff and student body seem to be satisfied with the changes made to the parking and it looks to be an overall improvement for the parking situation. Although it is different, LHS has benefited from this change and could be working to improve the parking system even more in years to come.
