By Eric Vallen
Ideally, driving is the most efficient method of transporting oneself to school. High schoolers may be the most prominent owning group of cars, but that doesn’t exactly mean it isn’t efficient. Primarily, from personal experience, we as high schoolers tend to push said poop boxes to their limits. Considering this, we would ideally get to school quickly. Furthermore, cars aid us in many ways. Most of our trash-like cars have A/C, and probably a stereo. Perhaps even an aux cord. With said aux cord, light speed can be reached. Considering the absolutely horrid infrastructure surrounding Westmont, such efficiency cannot be reached. Quito road from 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. is an absolute hellscape. Don’t even get me started about Harriet. Westmont Ave? Might as well be Satan’s front lawn. People treat a cross-walk as a stop sign, stop signs as a green light, turning out in front of traffic, etc. The parking lot? Satan’s bedroom. The death factor inside that place is a 10 out of 10. I swear on my life some kid did a donut at 8:20 a.m., January 21, 2022. In that place, you actually have to follow DMV guidelines. I want you looking over every shoulder you have. Check both blind spots even after you park. Past that, the walk to the school from the parking lot isn’t too bad.
From a basic standpoint, walking is the worst option. Objectively the slowest, coldest, and most depressing method. However, you don’t have to deal with any traffic, at least for most of the way until you pass one of the two stops at either end of campus. You have more freedom to listen to music, as in you can absolutely blast it without being in more danger. During the dangerous times, aka 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., walking would likely get you to school faster than a car. However, there are certain dangers to walking to school. For one, inept high school drivers are extremely scared of you, and hence more prone to causing accidents on the road. This may affect you due to having to laugh your behind off at them once they crash. Seriously though, stop signs and having to cross the street are real life and death situations while walking to school. People do not wait. You really just have to stare down the drivers and hope they don’t decide to run you down. Besides that though walking is alright, about 4/10 on the danger scale, a pretty mediocre way of getting to school.
In all honesty, biking is the supreme method of getting to school. During death times you travel much faster than cars and much faster than walkers. Based on the majority of logic that bikers follow, you can blatantly ignore traffic laws, blow through stop signs, and can use the sidewalk and crosswalks. Essentially bikers have the right of way in every situation when it comes to entering Westmont High School. Bikers have a designated parking place, arguably a more secure one than cars, and it’s inside the school. However, biking has one distinct disadvantage. Bikers look dorky. Extremely dorky. The connotation around bikes is dorky in and of itself but also having to wear a helmet while riding makes everyone think you’re a dork. Walking your bike through school might as well be the walk of shame. In spite of this, it’s quite a good trade-off. One can get to school much quicker than anyone else, but also shall forever be known as a biker. You choose.
Of the big three, biking takes the cake as the best possible way to get to school. However, objectively, driving is the safest and laziest, and hence the best for most high schoolers. If you’re walking, you have my condolences, but at least you’re faster than cars. Safe travels my friends, no matter which way you do it.