At Hollis Brookline High School, as soon as the 2:30 p.m. bell sounds, students whip open the classroom doors and begin the sprint to their cars to avoid the painstaking traffic. Losing the minimal time that students have after school to get to their cars makes getting home quickly a hopeless task. Although some students run as fast as they can to beat the buses, they still have to wait several minutes in traffic at a standstill.

For some students like myself, every day when the bell sounds, we sprint to our cars, dodging underclassmen and other drivers in the parking lot. We do this everyday, but in reality, how much time does this save? “It saves me about 10 to 15 minutes, and when I need to rush to get to work, it helps a lot,” said Cody Gagnon ‘18. To overcome the race against time, you have to run because the cars are stopped by Mrs. Zeller, Assistant Principal at HB. “I have to stop the cars at 2:32, but as close to 2:33 as I can,” Zeller said. However, the busses don’t leave for another five minutes after that. So, to beat the traffic and the buses, you have about two minutes from when school ends to get to your car and drive away.

High school students, with all their after school activities such as sports and jobs, don’t have a lot of free time, so if students can save 15 minutes just by beating the buses, they will do it. However, like any driving situation, attempting to beat the buses isn’t always safe.

One student who learned the consequences for not paying attention while trying to beat the buses is Zach Schofield ‘18. Two years, at approximately 2:15 pm which was the time school used to get out before the time change this year. He was running with a friend to beat the buses and Zach chose not to use the crosswalk and did not look both ways before he crossed the street. On his way to one of the dirt lots, Schofield got hit by a car and broke his leg. This is one example of trying to beat the buses can cause a safety issue.

Underclassmen might not even know why we have an empty dirt bottom lot that is not in use.This space still could have been used for parking, and this incident is the reason why we cannot use it. “I don’t get why they can’t use it for parking,” said Schofield. Schofield still runs to beat the buses every day, and thinks it is worth every minute he saves to create free time and to get to work.

By stopping cars, the buses are able to have a clear lane with less traffic in order to drop kids off at their homes on time. This allows them to arrive at the elementary schools on time. I am one of these many students and for me it is worth the everyday sprint. For me and many other students that I have talked to about this topic, getting to work due to school traffic can affect whether you get fired or written up at work, so if running can stop that then it is worth it.