The new northwest parking passes that went on sale earlier this week, made available to sophomores as well as upperclassmen, is one of the best decisions that I have ever seen made at Rock Bridge High School.

Anyone who had a license in 10th grade will tell you about how awful it was having to park in sophomore alley — for starters, if you can’t parallel park, which I for one definitely can’t, you’re pretty much done for. Not to mention the fact that if you aren’t showered and ready to drive to school by the crack of dawn, chances are there will be no spots left, and you’ll have to park even farther out. But though making passes available to sophomores will fix a lot of problems, it will also ironically lead to even more discord.

 This is because for some reason, a lot of people think they are more entitled if they are older, which is pretty well exemplified by upperclassmen constantly complaining about sophomores parking in the lots even though they are restricted to only juniors and seniors.

Allowing for sophomores to purchase these new parking passes will most likely end with people who have too much time on their hands complaining about something that really doesn’t matter that much.

Considering that only 100 of these northwest parking passes will be available for purchase, and that there are well over 100 spaces in the northwest parking lot left vacant on a daily basis, there is not much of an argument left for upperclassmen to defend their moot point.

 I only wish this idea had been put into action before the winter season, since there would also have been multiple safety benefits, the most imperative of which being that there would be those pertaining to inclement weather. For instance, salted/treated parking lots are a much safer place to leave your car during snowy weather, as opposed to parking along streets with snow accumulation from plows. Not to mention that having significantly fewer cars parked in sophomore alley would make exiting the South Lot after school far quicker due to the reduction in congestion of traffic.

But that leads us to the Achilles’ heel of the situation … as someone who usually parks in the North lot, I will say  it is impossible not to spend at least 15 minutes exiting the parking lot after school without leaving several minutes before the bell rings. And in conjunction with filling up empty spaces in the lot, it is only logical that these extra 100 vehicles exiting the lot will only make getting out worse. But I am sure that the sophomores utilizing these new parking passes will agree with me that spending a few extra minutes getting out of the parking lot is a small price to pay.

In the grand scheme of things, letting 100 students use parking spaces that no one else uses is not the end of ends. I’m sure those disgruntled by this small gesture will soon get over it, and if not … tough cheese, fellas.

By George Sarafianos

What do you think of the new parking situation?