Every day, students and parents sit stationary in massive lines on the way to school. For many, it takes the same amount of time to get from their house to WJ that it does to actually get inside the school.
Traffic causes countless unexcused tardies at WJ each day. Recent bad weather has amplified the effects of road backups and safety hazards, showing how much room for improvement there is.
Currently, there are three main locations for students to park: the student lot, the bus loop and the roads by Davis Library. Each location has various issues that students must deal with every morning.
Kehoe cites the left turn from Rockledge Drive into the student lot (see map) as a major point of concern. Morning backups here are caused by the number of cars going in different directions simultaneously. Students turn left into the parking lot while other vehicles zoom past on the road as a long line waits to exit the lot. Add in the students walking from their cars to the building and it’s no wonder why this seemingly simple turn becomes so challenging.
This backup isn’t the only obstacle for students who want to arrive on time for their first period. Around 7:30 a.m., Rockledge Drive (map) becomes a sea of stationary cars. The furthest point where backups become a problem is where Old Georgetown Road merges with I-270 and turns onto Rockledge Drive.
The left turn light cycle is short, meaning very few cars can turn left at a time. This may be an effort to lessen traffic further down Rockledge Drive but it has another major implication: cars back up onto the highway (see photo). This problem has extended beyond the reach of WJ and could be impacting others during the morning commute.
“In previous years, we have reached out to the state of Maryland regarding Old Georgetown and the timing with the light that is over there,” Vice Principal Jeff Leaman, who formerly oversaw safety and security, said. “If the light was changed, I could increase how many cars we could actually get through.”
Along Rock Spring Drive, cars stop on the side of the road to drop off their students. This adds to the buildup of traffic down Rockledge Drive.
Leaman is stationed by the traffic circles in the front of the building every morning and witnesses these traffic problems firsthand.
“…As people are heading up Rock Spring Drive towards Old Georgetown at certain times of the year, they’re looking directly into the sun and they can’t see anything,” Leaman said. “There’s been several accidents there. We haven’t had any pedestrian injuries at that particular location, but the possibility of it is on a daily basis.”
On the topic of safety, there’s a major concern on the other side of the school. Many students, most of whom are juniors and new drivers, park around Davis Library on Democracy Boulevard. When leaving in the afternoon, many students have to turn left from one of the side streets onto this busy road.
“Getting out, there [are] cars going pretty fast,” senior Dylan Himelfarb said. “Taking that left [with] cars piled up behind you [is] very difficult.”
Himelfarb calls on the county to make changes to address these intersections, including adding traffic lights to control traffic. He also proposed WJ and Davis work together to tackle this issue.
“[WJ could] cooperate with Davis [and] try to get some people parking passes,” Himelfarb said. “The more people who can park in Davis, the easier it is for people to get out without having to take these obnoxiously hard lefts.”
Every student gets to school differently, so they experience different parts of the traffic and safety issues. In a survey, many student responses complained about the traffic on Old Georgetown Road, Democracy Blvd or the student lot.
Woodward High School will become home to a large portion of WJ crowds in 2027 and Leaman is optimistic that this will make a large difference in these traffic issues. Until then, he encourages students to make slight adjustments to help the flow of morning traffic and keep everyone safe.
“Encourage your parents or your Uber driver to follow the rules of the road so that we can get everybody here safely,” Leaman said. “If it’s possible to get up a little bit earlier, the building does open at 7 a.m. Spread[ing] that time out a little bit better would really make a big difference in terms of making sure that everybody is safe getting to school.”
