Hallway Traffic

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Navigating the Nuisance of the Road to Class

Words | John Kirkpatrick Layout | John Kirkpatrick

The electronic ringing of the bell signals the end of one class period and the start of another. For many students, this is the start of a challenge, passing period.

“There’s a bunch of people walking slowly and just stopping everywhere and blocking up the halls,” Gavin Taylor ‘24 said.

This year Johnston has focused more on limiting tardies and absences. This means there are more students intent on arriving to class on time.

“People form walls in the halls, it’s really obnoxious and stops me from getting to class in a reasonable amount of time,” Thomas Kimm ‘24 said.

There are many challenges like students forming “walls” that arise when trying to walk through the hallways. The constant struggle of trying not to run into people, walking on the right side of the halls, people who walk slowly, and navigating around big groups of people are some of the many challenging parts of hallway traffic.

During passing period the halls become jam-packed with students on the way to their next class. The hallway feels very compact for the amount of people that go to this school. It becomes very difficult to walk in the halls when you’re shoulder to shoulder with other students. And it can be a challenge to peel off into your class when other people are pressed to the sides of you.

“I think that [students] should stand single-file and get to class,” Kimm said.

Students should walk on the right side of the hallway in order to keep a steady flow of students.

The jam-packed hallways filled with students are not the only struggles of hallway traffic. For some it comes down to how fast or slowly their peers walk. Everyone walks at their own pace, some faster than others.

“It’s annoying, I walk faster, and it really annoys me when I have to slow down and match other people’s paces,” Taylor said When students do walk slowly it can be harder to get around them. It can also be pretty irritating to have to be stuck behind a slow walker.

“It’s really annoying, all you can really do is yell at them to go faster,” Alex Moore ‘24 said.

One reason for slow-walking students is that they can have a tendency to want to talk to friends and gather in the hallway.

When students stop to talk to their friends they tend to cluster together and form groups that block parts of the hallway.

“I just get really annoyed because I just want to get to my class and get where I’m going, it just really slows me down,” Taylor said.

It is never a bad thing to talk with friends in the hallways. We all do it, but it becomes a problem when it interferes with other students. Forming groups jams up the hallway and makes it difficult for other students to get around them. It becomes an inconvenience having to be stuck walking behind these clusters of students as you try to get to class.

A way that students can avoid clustering in the hallways is finding a space to talk with your friends.

“Go to the lunchroom if you’re going to stand and talk to your friends, don’t form a mass in the hallway,” Kimm said.

Using additional spaces can help free up space in the hallways for other students and prevents students from clustering up in the hallway.

While there is not a fix-all solution to hallway traffic there are steps we can take to help limit the problems. Walking on the right side of the hallway will make sure there is not as many jam ups. And finding a place away from the halls to talk will help stop the clustering of students and free up space for other people.

The one word that many students use to describe hallway traffic is annoying. It is always going to be frustrating to be stuck behind a slow walker or being crammed together with other students but what matters is we just move forward and continue on with our day.

“We have so many people in the building that it doesn’t matter what year it is we’re just always going to have a hallway crowding problem,” Kimm said.