An ubiquitous element of the Sidwell experience is arriving a few minutes late for first period, praying that the teacher hasn’t yet submitted their Veracross attendance. When questioned, many students launch into long tales about the trials and tribulations of driving to school. However, in the opening weeks of the 2024-2025 school year, their stories might actually be true.
Now more than ever, students face obstacles in driving to school and parking. “A drive that took me ten minutes last year now takes me 25 because it takes 15 minutes to make the turn into the garage,” said junior Stephen Koopersmith. “It’s a gamble if I get to school 15 minutes early or five minutes late.”
Junior Caroline Mohamadi echoed this sentiment, saying, “it takes literally 15 minutes to make the left turn into the garage, it’s insane.” On most mornings, the line of cars making the left turn stretches more than halfway down the 3900 block of Wisconsin Ave. In addition, the high percentage of new drivers slows down the process even more.
There are many factors that contribute to the extreme morning congestion on Wisconsin Avenue and in the Sidwell garage. The City Ridge development, which includes the Wegmans grocery store, has caused heightened traffic. The new traffic light installed to manage the Wegmans parking garage slows down the street even further. On Sept. 11, and then again on Sept. 24, the light was unexpectedly out of service. This caused even longer lines than usual, and increased the overall chaos on Wisconsin Ave. While this kind of incident is rare, it shows how easily the current system can be disrupted.
“[T]he District has allowed significant residential and commercial development in the area — including two grocery stores across from the campus. Ultimately, the District is responsible for managing the traffic flow on Wisconsin Ave., and it would have to design and implement any traffic abatement plans,” said Russ Friedson, Sidwell’s Assistant Head of School for Finance & Operations.
Student parking at Sidwell has had a long and contentious history. Unlike many other private schools in the area, the campus is very compact due to its urban location. Therefore, students have always struggled with where to keep their cars during the school day. Before 2006, no students were allowed to park on campus. Instead, they would park on 37th Street, Quebec Street or Tilden Street or in the surrounding neighborhoods. However, there were issues with students leaving campus in the middle of the day to move their cars due to time-limited parking. Faculty parking was determined by seniority, with only the most tenured employees having guaranteed spots on campus.
The construction of the Sidwell garage in 2006 was meant to alleviate these issues. With 134 spots, it was expected to have enough parking for everyone combined with other on-campus locations. In its inaugural year, students had to pay $10 a month to the school to use the garage, according to the 2006-2007 Student Handbook. The number of students enrolled in the Upper School in the 2007-2008 school year was 462, over 40 fewer students than there are currently.
Another issue is parents and caregivers, who often opt to turn into the first entrance of the garage while dropping their children off in the morning, disregarding the rules and system managed by the crossing guards. “We are aware of this and have been monitoring the traffic patterns in the garage,” said Friedson. “We will address this issue as appropriate.”
Apart from this, parking in a garage can be stressful for new drivers. The phrase ‘I hit a pole’ is commonly heard in the hallways of the Upper School. To make matters worse, students are often afraid to make a driving mistake because their teachers are in such close proximity. “I was holding up traffic by backing into a spot and I almost crashed into the car next to me because Mr. Miller was watching me park,” said junior Angela Ding.
This year, the school has closed off faculty parking in the newly-acquired Upton building, leading to a shortage of parking for students on campus. As a solution to this, the school has rented 20 spaces in the Wegmans garage. “The school wants to provide parking for the whole SFS community, as needed,” said Friedson. “However, there are a limited number of spaces, and we must first provide parking for employees before allocating the remaining spaces to students.” He continued, saying the school “evaluated several alternatives” before making a decision, but did not go into specifics.
Students with an assigned parking space in the Wegmans garage are permitted to arrive at school at 8:15 a.m. instead of the usual 8:00 a.m. to account for the walk across Wisconsin Ave. Students with those spots have expressed grievances over their parking. Junior Lexi Orr explained that she finds it “inconvenient” because it takes an extra 10 minutes for her to get to school on most days, a significant delay given the chance of LOP for being consistently late. Still, the Sidwell administration seems to have no major qualms about it. “After one week, we’re pleased, and the plan seems to be working well,” said Friedson.
There seems to be no clear solution to the parking problem at Sidwell. The school is limited by location and space, and administration has done its best over the years to alleviate this issue as much as possible. However, parking at Sidwell isn’t likely to improve soon.
