When students receive their license, Mansfield ISD issues them parking stickers that they must place on the bottom right corner of their back windshield to park in their school lot. A rule states students cannot pull through or reverse park because the sticker must be visible when checked. The school board should change the rule to allow students to pull through or reverse park in student lots.
Experts say reverse parking is safer for pedestrians. In school parking lots, students roam everywhere, run and step in front of and behind cars at random. This can be a huge safety hazard when student drivers back out of their spaces. Back-up cameras have a limited view and some older cars don’t have a camera at all. Facing out to exit eliminates certain blind spots and gives drivers a clearer view of their surroundings.
Not only does reverse parking prove safer for pedestrians, but studies show it is safer for other cars. Young drivers have been known to be significantly more likely to speed, and this includes in parking lots. Some drivers in student lots will speed or make unexpected decisions that make it difficult for other drivers to effectively back out. This could result in crashes, which would lead to a series of unfortunate events that could have all been avoided if the driver had the option to park facing outwards where they could better see oncoming traffic.
Proponents of MISD’s no reverse parking rule say that backing in can be harder for new drivers to do than regular perpendicular parking and could also result in unfortunate crashes. However, studies have shown that the pull-in/back-out maneuver holds a higher crash rate than back-in/pull-out parking. In taking away the rule, students who don’t feel comfortable reverse parking would also be free to pull through, which would also leave them in a place where they could face out when exiting. Proponents also argue that administrators need to be able to see students’ parking stickers located on the bottom right of their back windshield, which would be easiest to see if all cars had the stickers facing out. While this may be true, students’ safety should be the number one priority for all schools.
Despite hesitations associated with parking sticker visibility, the school board should put the safety of student drivers first and allow them to pull through or reverse park in school parking lots.
