Around three weeks ago, traffic cones and yellow tape flooded the parking lot of Maize South High School. Ever since then, the lot has experienced major changes to help improve the flow of traffic with newly added spots, more room for backing out, and a switch from horizontal to vertically aligned lots towards the back.

A struggle for some students was backing out of the parking lot, and a couple of students backed into each other while doing so. Junior Zeke Gaddie said the changes have been a big improvement.

“It’s almost drastically different,” Gaddie said. “When I do park in the front, I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s actually room to back out now.’ ”

For teachers that get caught in after-school traffic, they are glad for the new smooth-running system. Math teacher Greg Shelly found it difficult to adjust to at first, but he enjoys not being stuck in traffic for minutes at a time.

“I think with more access to the driveway between the upper and lower lot that the new rows provide, there is more flow of traffic,” Shelly said. “There is also more space between the parking rows for students and others to get into and out of the parking stalls, which helps to increase traffic flow as well as safety.”

Another huge factor that played into the change was safety. Gaddie said he hopes that after these changes, there will be fewer accidents across the lot.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve almost gotten hit while driving out of the parking lot,” Gaddie said. “I hope with the newly angled spots that the parking lot is a lot safer because I don’t know if I could handle an accident right now.”

Some students have to drive long distances to get to school, and before the change, students struggled with finding spots by the time they got there. Junior Xander Fenoglio is happy that he can find spots in the back even after arriving later than most students.

“It’s usually a longer drive when I’m at my mom’s,” Fenoglio said. “I struggled to find a parking spot; now I can find a spot even after getting to the school later than everyone else.”

One change can’t fix everything, but it can help recognize the changes that still need to be made. Shelly said he believes there could’ve been more done to increase safety in the lot to help prevent accidents and crashes.

“Putting back the parking barriers in the southeast corner of the upper parking lot will increase safety there since there will be more opportunity for cars to see crossing traffic when trying to turn left or right in front of the stadium,” Shelley said.

Some students feel indifferent about the parking lot change and believe they should have done more to help improve the flow. Fenoglio wanted more from this change.

“I think it was a worthwhile change even though it takes almost the same amount of time to leave as it did before,” Fenoglio said. “But if they are going to do this kind of stuff, they should ask more people since the two-way lane in and out is the problem, and it didn’t change.”