It’s 7:33 AM, your first period is Mr. Beveans, and your grade in his class is a 89%. Your only hope to get an A is the final participation grade for the quarter. Cars on all sides confine you. Your head scans the rows. You see a spot devoid of a car. Your heart skipping a beat. You approach the slot with glee. Just before you pull up a sophomore materializes. Before you can even blink they are in the spot and walking to their class, smug smirk on their face.

Parking has been an issue at Park City High School for many years. Almost everyone that drives has an issue with it. The main proponent of the issue comes from the obvious overcrowding of the approximately 400 parking spots (45 sophomore, 260 Junior, 95 Senior) open to students. With a growing student population, this issue will progressively get worse in the next few years.

In the morning it is increasingly difficult to find parking as you approach the beginning of a class period. Most Senior being fine until 7:30 AM and Juniors slightly earlier. This is almost always an issue because of the overselling of parking. There has to be some overselling or else there would be open spots. There has to be some overselling or else there will be an issue with empty parking spaces and people without passes will take them Vice Principal Mr. Fine said in an interview.

The main solution that is presented is to simply build more parking, but that is impossible and ineffective at the time. The parking lots are surrounded on all sides. There isn’t a way to build more parking without demolishing or rebuilding school amenities such as the Doger Field or baseball fields. Also, the Junior lot has less of an issue with finding a parking spot and a large one with getting out of the parking lot.

Apart from the difficulty finding parking, getting out of the parking lot can be a hassle. The congested lots are filled with 400 students all trying to leave through small, two lane, exits onto busy streets. One Junior said that they needed to wait 20 minutes after school just to leave!  This congestion is mainly a problem for the Junior lot as they 1.8 time more spots than both of the other lots combined and the same number of exits as the Senior lot. This

“That’s fact, there are not enough spots but that’s not something we can quickly fix. It’s complex.” Vice Principal Mr. Fine acknowledged. He recommends car pooling, stating its utility and eco-friendly nature with a slight inconvenience factor. Due to the nature of schools to grow, however, this is not a viable permanent solution.

The other part of the issue, Sophomores getting Junior/Senior passes, has no direct opposition but the distribution policy this year is in line with the issue. “Sophomores get Sophomore passes, Juniors and Senior get their Junior and Senior passes. Once they run out of Junior and Senior passes you can get a Sophomore pass…” said Mr. Fine on the issue. Time will tell if the policy will be effective.

As class sizes get larger and parking remains the same size there will need to be more creative solutions to the overcrowding. In the meantime, carpooling and taking the bus seem to be the best way to combat the flood of students.