Every day at Timberland, there are roughly eight passing periods, and hallway congestion in each of them. How this congestion be relieved, might be simpler than it seems.

The basic idea of walking in the halls at school is like driving on the road: stick to your side and do not cross over, unless, obviously, you are heading to class. Everyday congestion does not get any easier when people are walking through crowds of people going the.

The same idea goes for the stairs, especially the main staircase. There are two sides of the stairs; one for going up and one for going down. That keeps the flow of traffic moving smoothly, but is something that is rarely obeyed by students at Timberland. When people stop to let groups of people walking up the wrong side of the stairs come up, it creates extra congestion. Following this more closely can also relieve hallway congestion.

There are many more factors that go into this as well. Simply watching where you are going is more helpful than you would think. When that is the case, students are not running into people, or slowing down because you are not watching where you are walking. That goes for not texting and walking either, as running into people or slowing down to where others run into you happen quite a bit from that happening. 

Finally, with hallway traffic moving at a steady pace for the most part, one of the most problematic things are stopped groups of people clogging the flow. Standing around with friends during passing period, or before and after school is fine, and many people do it, as they should. However, doing it in the middle of the hall creates an extra mess for those who are just trying to go from class to class without any added troubles. 

The hallways are frequently the busiest and most hectic place during our school day, but following these ideas just a little bit better could make them easier for everyone.