Despite the dangers of parking on George C. Marshall Drive, students who did not purchase a school parking pass still choose to do so.
Perpendicular to Leesburg Pike, this road serves as both an alternative parking location and a connection between the high school and the three neighborhoods opposite to it.
Students park on the side of the street where most of the drivers keep their vehicles until the school day is over. Parking passes cost 200 dollars each.
“I could not spend the money for a parking pass, so I sought a good parking spot on Marshall Drive,” senior Benjamin Podolny said.
Podolny also said Marshall Drive was the only place to park without a pass other than the neighborhood that drivers quickly crowd.
“I usually park illegally somewhere because the underclassmen who park on Marshall drive are horrible drivers,” Podolny said.
Podolny said the underclassmen are inexperienced and have not yet learned parallel parking.
Because seniors took the parking spots on school grounds, underclassmen use Marshall Drive as a free alternative.
“Marshall drive is closest to the school and it is easy to park there when I get there early,” junior Brogan Lee-Pawlak said.
Lee-Pawlak said he didn’t get the chance to buy a parking pass, and parking along this road was somewhat challenging because he only recently obtained his license.
“I wouldn’t call it dangerous, but it can be a bit hectic at times with high risk for accidents, considering all of us are young, inexperienced drivers,” Lee-Pawlak said.
Junior Benjamin Langkau, like Lee-Pawlak, got his license after the passes sold out and he cited the cost as another reason he parks along Marshall Drive.
“I got my license around late December and I thought at the time that it was too late to get a parking pass,” Langkau said. “I had learned from the upperclassmen that the passes were a couple hundred dollars each.”
2019-02-15