In previous years, numerous students have had to endure both starting and ending their school days in lines of traffic; an ongoing issue patiently waiting to be solved.
Over this past summer, OHS worked diligently to reduce the amount of traffic on Hackamore and ease its flow.
“We called it our ‘Hackamore project’, and worked with the City of Phoenix, myself, and Phoenix Police to come up with a plan,” said Brad Garraway, lead security.
The crosswalk was maneuvered from behind the Safeway parking lot, where cars came from every direction to a safer, more reliable location.
“We moved [the crosswalk] down between the baseball fields, and that has made it safer for the kids, and has alleviated a lot of the congestion on Hackamore,” Garraway said.
Relocating the crosswalk has been a very time consuming and rigorous process for various OHS staff, who have worked diligently to improve the Hackamore issues.
“There have been plans for change for years. We finally got a meeting with everyone, came together, put our minds together; we got blueprints and plans from the city of Phoenix traffic division department and engineering department. We approved it, and it took another year after that for everything to be implemented,” Garraway said.
Due to the hard work of OHS security and administration, the crosswalk change has provided parents, students, and faculty with various advantages and has increased the level of safety when arriving and leaving school.
“The benefits are, for one, the safety of pedestrians and the kids because they are no longer crossing the old crosswalk at the street where they’re at risk from all the vehicle traffic,” Garraway said.
Every situation has its disadvantages alongside improvements, including the crosswalk relocation. Students are not used to having to walk further in order to reach the crosswalk.
“As far as the kids walking a little farther, I think that’s gonna take an adjustment, and it’s going to take some time before they get used to it,” Garraway said.
Other students find that the crosswalk is creating more of an issue when trying to leave school.
“I think it made [traffic] a lot worse along 35th [street] because now you get stopped, so the far side of that lane gets really backed up,” said Abigail Fitzpatrick, senior.
In some situations, students have created and implemented their own daily routines in order to avoid traffic altogether.
“I get to school super early, so on a normal day I get here at like 6:30 and just sit in my car to avoid people,” Fitzpatrick said.
Along with moving the crosswalk, OHS has also worked to improve the parking situation on Hackamore, adding more spots and painting tick marks to act as parking spot lines.
“[The tick marks] also give guidance to the kids with where they’re allowed to park and not allowed to park, because I’m gonna fully admit, that the city of Phoenix with the bike lane reduced the number of spots and made it kind of ambiguous and confusing on where you’re allowed to park,” Garraway said.
More students are able to obtain a spot on Hackamore because of the instruction that the painted directions provide.
“I think this year [parking] is a lot better because of the lines that they painted on the street so that the students don’t take up more spaces than needed,” said Rea Patel, junior.
Students are also able to arrive at school a little later than in previous years and still find a parking spot along Hackamore.
“I get there probably around 6:50, and usually there’s a spot all the way down Hackamore, so I think it has really helped,” Patel said.
The changes made at OHS along Hackamore were in many ways, necessary. The school is working hard to make it the most efficient and safest environment possible.
“It has been a long process. It has been a concern from Phoenix PD, security, our administration, and mostly an outpouring of concern from our community that something needs to be done, and we finally were able to put our resources together and accomplish our goals,” Garraway said.
