The endless pursuit of advancement, no matter the cost. Children running for their lives. If you thought this was a dramatic retelling of war, you’d be wrong. This is Enloe carpool, and the following are the top ten worst carpool moments.
- Road Rage
One of the most important rules of driving is defensive driving. But honking, tailgating, and cutting people off, all common occurrences in Enloe carpool, are not defensive driving. The parents trying to safely drop their kids off often get honked at by the ones who are more concerned about going to their next destination.
- No Turn Signals
While it may not seem obvious to signal your turn when clearly in a lane that is right or left only, carpool is a land of no rules. While you usually can assume someone will turn in a turn lane, the moment you try to turn left into carpool, you’re being blocked by them going straight. To carpool drivers, please, it’s not that hard to flip on the turn signal and let the rest of us know what you’re doing.
- Blocking the Senior Parking Lot
Is it common knowledge not to block the entrances/exits to places that intersect with your road? I certainly thought so, but the drivers of Enloe carpool so often close off the entrance to the senior parking lot that it clearly isn’t. If the student drivers cannot get into the school to park, that’s just more traffic to enter carpool, as student drivers in turn block the entrance to Clarendon Crescent in their effort to get into the parking lot. Carpoolers, you seriously don’t need to create a wall of cars across the parking lot entrance; you won’t get to the stop sign any faster.
- Blocking the Buses
In the same vein as the last point, blocking the buses from exiting the senior lot creates bus traffic, and prevents the flow of traffic within the senior parking lot. Between buses being trapped in the parking lot by the aforementioned line of cars and parents dropping their kids off in the lot, disrupting the buses’ ability to let kids out, bus traffic screeches to a halt. Carpool manages to find a way to disrupt roads outside of its own self once again.
- Ignoring the Security Guard’s Directions
On the days that a security guard is directing traffic, so few drivers actually listen that it ends up causing more problems. He is attempting to let the line empty out so we can move forward? Clearly, if I keep going into oncoming traffic, I’ll get to my destination faster!
- Turning the Two Lane Road Into Five Lanes of Traffic
Clarendon Crescent, where the carpool line begins, is a two-way traffic road, with one lane on either side and a turn lane in the middle. For some reason, people decide that each through-traffic lane is actually two lanes, one where they can pull over and let out their kids, and one where other cars can go around them. There should be no reason why two cars are driving side by side in one lane, leaving very little space between cars and the curb. This becomes worse when the cars that were pulled over have to try to merge back into the through-traffic lane to get around the other parked cars.
- Getting Out of One Turn Lane to Cut the Other
Some people are not team players. Some people get out of the lane coming from New Bern to make a wide right turn in the lane for the group coming from Lord Ashley, effectively cutting that line to get into school faster. What I don’t understand is why they can’t simply let their kids out, the ones that can easily just use the sidewalk to walk into school. 
- Pulling Over and Making Students Cross Four Lanes of Traffic
Due to the whole “making one lane into two lanes” issue, students from the Lord Ashley side of Clarendon have a task of crossing four lanes of cars, two of which are continuously moving. Another lane has cars recklessly pulling out of their parallel park, and the fourth has cars that may move up or turn at any moment. Meanwhile, the students are stuck standing in the fifth “parking lane” due to the lack of a sidewalk. How any parent would be comfortable with their children doing this, given all the obvious issues with the drivers and their seeming inability to follow the rules, is beyond me.
- People Not Letting the Students Cross
To make the previous point worse, drivers will not stop to let kids cross 90% of the time. They are so preoccupied with closing all gaps and trying to get to the front that they just drive by, forcing students to make a break for it when they see the opportunity. There is no reason why students should have to time their crossing for fear that the oncoming cars won’t stop. While students are technically not supposed to cross the road where they typically do, because there’s no crosswalk, they are often forced out by impatient parents, or are running close to the bell. Drivers should be on the lookout for crossing students, especially because they are driving in a school zone during school hours.
- U-Turns
The amount of illegal U-turns (all of them) that occur on Clarendon during carpool is ridiculous. Nothing beats the pure shock of watching three cars in a row attempt to execute a U-turn, simultaneously blocking through-traffic, forcing their way through the turn lane, and nearly hitting parked cars on the other side. People seemingly cannot fathom just going straight and making a couple right or left turns to take them in the right direction, and thus must do a U-turn.
These issues are not inherent. Enloe carpool is so inefficient in its processes that students are left with the choice of being late to class and getting a tardy, or pulling off the above maneuvers to attempt to make it in time. With a crossing guard, the movement of traffic would become better, to the point where people would not have to resort to danger to get to class on time. However, as it stands, the drivers are so stuck in their ways and focused on personal efficiency that they give up overall efficiency. As long as this continues, carpool will remain lawless and dangerous. Enloe carpoolers, do better.
