When the bell rings at 2:20 p.m. every day, leaving school becomes a race to beat the traffic. Students run and walk as fast as they can, disregarding crosswalks, cars or other people to get home as quickly as possible. There is no blame for doing this. Outside of Miami Palmetto Senior High’s fence, the situation feels as chaotic as a war zone. It is a mess of cars, students, bikes, dogs, buses and every other mode of transport under the sun. Beyond becoming very dangerous, the chaos at MPSH creates a lot of annoying and frustrating traffic.
One aspect of this that should be discussed is the complete disregard of some MPSH parents for traffic laws. For many, it is acceptable to stop in the middle of the road in front of one of the main gates and just block traffic while their kid dawdles and slowly trudges over to their car. Some parents feel completely fine just parking on a side street directly next to another car, making it impossible to go around them and completely blocking the road.
Some parents feel entitled to park in the student parking lot while waiting for their kids. Having a Parent Teacher Student Association mom parked in your spot when you show up late after a doctor’s appointment or something is annoying.
The worst of the situation is along the back of the school where the Pinecrest People Mover picks up students. Cars will line up on the eastbound lane, and whenever someone wants to pass, they have to swing around the buses and go into oncoming traffic. In the morning, this is not an issue because the street is one way. Therefore, it makes zero sense that during pickup time you can go both ways on that street. Driving down the opposite way of all the cars feels like playing a game of asteroids, where you are constantly dodging random cars and objects.
The root of this problem is that too many people drive to school. If you live within a 15-minute bike ride of the school, there is very little reason beyond being physically unable to bike or walk that you should be driving here. In a perfect world, that would be the case. However, biking to MPSH is like playing roulette; you never know if you are going to be hit by a car or not.
Biking around the school area is not safe. Your options are busy roads with fast cars or narrow sidewalks with too many road crossings. These make it easy for cars to pull up and hit you when they forget to look both ways. If we want to fix the chaos every morning and afternoon around MPSH, then we need fewer people to want to drive here. This will only happen if we advocate for investments in bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Unfortunately, what has happened in the last few years on the municipal and county level has not been enough to make biking a safe and viable option.
I think I can speak for all MPSH students when I say parents, please be aware of your surroundings when picking up your kid. If you are blocking a road, look up from your phone and move. If your kid is taking a while to show up, drive around the block and come back to your spot so traffic can move. Just be mindful, and remember that there are many inexperienced young drivers around, so show grace and do not be quick to use your horn.
