Westside High School, being located adjacent to Pacific Street, often sees traffic congestion before and after school hours. Westside has recently introduced new guidelines that aim to help increase traffic flow for both Westside students and parents as well as other drivers in the area. On Monday, Oct. 14, Westside High School changed the location for where the in district busses will pick students up after school. Rather than the busses picking up students at their previous location on Pacific Street, the buses will now be located in the high school’s west parking lot. In addition to the change in bussing locations, Westside High School is also implementing a change in procedures for pick up and drop off times in the east parking lot. Westside’s Director of Student Services Robert Aranda said that the changes made are all about maintaining one thing for Westside students: safety.

“Safety is always the number one focus, especially with transportation,” Aranda said. “When kids get dropped off, you know, Pacific is so busy. [We’re trying to] make it a little bit easier [for our parents during pick up and drop off time].”

Similar to Aranda, Westside High School Principal Jay Opperman said that he believes by reducing traffic congestion in Westside parking lots and on Pacific Street, students will be provided with a safer environment.

“We’re trying to get all that commotion off of Pacific,” Opperman said. “And the overall concept is to just increase safety; that’s our goal.”

Opperman, Aranda and Westside Director of Communications and Engagement Brandi Paul reached out to the City of Omaha to perform a traffic study and give Westside administrators feedback on how to improve traffic flow and safety within the area.

“We had the City of Omaha come out and do a traffic study for the streets and our campus, and so we really talked [about improving safety],” Opperman said. “So we moved the in district bus routes to the west side and just got any bus pick up off of Pacific Street after school. So that was the first move. We’re keeping the option routes [where they currently are]–it’s working–we have people that are trained [on] what’s happening, it’s not on the street, so [traffic] will overall be safer in terms of those busses and where they’re at.”

Freshman Majesty Marti-Lester rides the option bus after school and said that she feels after school traffic has improved since moving the location of the in district busses.

“I think [traffic moves] a little bit faster [after school],” Marti-Lester said. “[The new bus pick-up locations] helps, because then all the busses go one way and you don’t have to go around the [in district] busses.”

One of the new guidelines for after school traffic includes the east parking lot using only one lane and encouraging that parents, or whoever may be picking students up, fill the two additional rows of the parking lot. Opperman said that this new guideline hopes to reduce the number of accidents occurring around the high school’s campus.

“Parents were waiting anyways, either they were waiting [in the east parking lot or] on Pacific [Street] potentially to be rear-ended,” Opperman said. “So basically what we’re doing is we’re trying to fill in every aisle in the parking lot if necessary, and just using one side of the aisle. I still think it’s safer; it’s just a new routine [and] you’re being directed by a staff member. It’s just going to take a bit more parent and student communication. In the end, I do think that people see that it’s probably safer to be sitting in that lot than it is to be sitting on Pacific.”

Aranda said that he believes parents or guardians staggering the times they pick up their students will help ease congestion in the east parking lot. 

“Hopefully parents will stagger the time they pick up kids,” Aranda said. “I know we all want to pick everybody up at 3:10 [p.m.], but you know at 3:10 [p.m.] that’s going to be the most congested just because of school busses. I think waiting ten minutes later [to pick up students] would help us out tremendously.”

Aranda said that he hopes the change in procedure for picking up students will help increase traffic flow along Pacific Street, especially during dismissal times. 

“[The new procedures] will have some more consistencies for parents and then not just parents that are coming in, but it will also help some of the people that use Pacific [Street] on a day to day basis, especially during dismissal time,” Aranda said.