Editorial final

Eastview High School decided to close the gate in the north parking lot that allows people to go down to the west student parking lot. This happened right at the end of second quarter on January 27, 2010 and has caused major traffic problems for everyone that travels down 140th street every morning.
The school can do whatever they want to do with the gate. If the gate will be closed from now on, this seems to be a good time for the city of Apple Valley to help the public out with the traffic. Right now there is no turn lane in front of the City building next to the school. This makes the two lane road seem like a one lane road in the morning when the right lane is made up of nearly all students trying to make it to school. This causes traffic jams on that side of the road.
On the other side, that goes by the north lot the traffic is even worse. The left lane is almost always backed up all the way to the Johnny Cake Ridge Road stop light. When traffic is backed up that far, people from the turn lane on Johnny cake that are trying to turn onto 140th, have to go into the right lane and try to merge into the left lane. In the morning it seems like everyone is in a hurry and they don’t want to leave room for you to merge in so traffic ends up stopping in both lanes. The only way to get to the school lot is to speed down the right lane then cut all the way over to the turn lane which is not safe for anyone that’s going down that road.
The solution I would suggest would be for the city to add a turn lane in front of their city building so the other two lanes of traffic could still flow freely. For the other side, the city should at least make the turn lane going into the north lot longer. This way, cars that need to turn can duck off into the turn lane and get out of the peoples way that are trying to go straight, past the school.
Some might argue that this is not needed because this only happens in the morning, or when school is in session. If you have ever tried to get into the school lot in the morning you would realize how unsafe it is. The problem could be solved with a much easier method anyways, Just open the gate again. Traffic would go back to normal and the city wouldn’t have to make changes.