Transporting nearly 14,000 students each day, and traveling about 1.8 million miles each year, North Penn School District’s transportation system covers the entire district, which stretches 72 square miles. In addition to all these students being transported to various schools each morning, there are 3,000 students plus teachers, librarians, janitors, coaches, security guards, and other faculty members that need to enter North Penn High School before 7:21 in the morning. Busses transport the masses; however there is still an entire parking lot that needs to be filled with the cars of students and staff, many of which arrive between 7:00 and 7:21. However, with many parents now driving their kids to school, Valley Forge Road (before North Penn’s first bell rings) has transformed into a dreaded single file crawl that can turn half a mile into a 10 minute episode.

“There’s not much that the we can do. The traffic light that was installed definitely helps. And if you think that traffic is bad, try the Schuylkill at rush hour” commented a local Towamencin police officer.

Whether traveling down Sumneytown Pike or Valley Forge Road, drivers inevitably hit a brick wall of traffic that turns an early morning jaunt into a recurring nightmare. Pulling into North Penn’s parking lot, it is easy to see the unhappy faces of parents that are backed up 50 yards from the stoplight, waiting to leave. And because there are so many parents lined up to leave at once, the busses are having an extremely hard time leaving the parking lot in order to start their next routes to pick up middle and elementary school students. The excessive traffic back-up that has progressively worsened over the last few months is an extremely easy fix. Instead of getting a ride from parents, students should either utilize the buses, whose function revolves around preventing such an occurrence, or hitch a ride from a friend.

“The onslaught of students trying to get to class on time is delayed by  the many parents who find it necessary to drop off their children, even when North Penn provides transportation. I find myself waking up a few minutes earlier each day in an anticipated attempt to beat this line of traffic near the high school, but it never works, and I’m walking into first period late more than once a week” said Senior Evan Liwerant.