By Dan Bray (December 23, 2002)

Horns sound, cars line up, and tempers flare. No it’s not beltway traffic, it’s 7:35 am at George Mason High School. As any morning commuter to Mason knows, the school has major traffic flow issues.

On busy days, well over 300 cars pass through the school parking lots; over two-thirds of these cars enter at Haycock Road. The problem is especially apparent at the Haycock Road entrance, where traffic backup is the worst.
 

These two charts, prepared by assistant principal Tim Guy, are based on figures compiled by students who tabulated the number of cars entering and leaving the school’s parking lots each minute during morning rush time at the Haycock Road and Route 7 entrances and exits to the school. They show that the peak times for cars is between 7:35 and 7:40 a.m. Full Size charts and data

In response to the growing concerns, 10 Mason students and Officer Steve Rau studied the traffic flow from 7:20 to 7:50 each morning for a week. Students were posted in groups of two or three at the Haycock Road and Route 7 entrances. They counted both cars coming in and going out. What they discovered was that the peak time occurred at about 7:35. One day 16 cars entered the parking lot during that one minute. It was also observed that by attempting to turn left while entering or exiting at Haycock, parents slowed down the traffic flow. The survey also showed that dropping off students at the Route 7 entrance was much quicker than at the Haycock Road entrance.
 

Mustang Sally, the school’s mascot, was commandeered into encouraging drivers to turn right, instead of left, onto Haycock Road after a survey showed that the left turns were contributing to significant traffic flow problems, especially during morning rush times.

The school administration analyzed the results and sent them home to the parents.The administration determined that changes in the traffic flow would promote safety as well as efficiency. As a result, the findings were sent home to parents and there is a sign that suggests turning right instead of left at the Haycock exit. For the first two days of this redesign, the school’s mascot Mustang Sally, even joined in, encouraging all exiting drivers, to turn right, not left, on to Haycock Road. Sally has been replaced by an A-frame sign that permanently carries this suggestion. The traffic flow changes contained six other suggestions that, according to assistant principal Tim Guy, "have significantly improved our trafffic and safety procedures."

It's traffic backups like this at the Haycock Road exit that the new traffic plan is trying to eliminate. (Photos by Officer Steve Rau)