My drive to work should only be about 14 minutes. But because of the horrendous traffic situation in Huntersville, a northern "bedroom" county of Charlotte, it takes me at least 30 minutes to arrive at work, on a good day. There is a stretch of road, about a mile long, when I don't get out of first gear. Frustration and boredom takes over me while I wait...so, this morning I grabbed my camera.
There are too few roads in this county that's growing at an alarming rate. In the above picture, there are middle school students behind me on those buses. It was 7:10 a.m. and some of them had been riding for more than an hour.
Above, this is a picture of those same students boarding buses at 4:00 p.m. They won't be home until at least 5:00 p.m.
Along the way to my campus, I pass North Mecklenburg High School with an enrollment of 3,500 students. Next to the high school is an elementary school which houses 2,000 students. Next to the elementary school is the middle school (seen above), housing 3,000 students. Is this insane? And the majority of the roads leading to these schools are two-lane back roads without right or left hand turning lanes! Bonus: Next to the middle school, a charter school is being built to house 1,000 students. Not to mention about seven new housing developments on my way...
Those almighty test scores would be somewhat higher if the conditions for students were better...and oh, yeah, pay the teachers what they deserve! I can't say it enough!
Replace those state road engineers making six figures and let ME solve the problem for much less! Oh yes, the funding game is always political bullsh--.
Above, North Meckenburg High School (the school housing 3,500 students). More than half of the "what could be a lovely campus" is littered with these portables.
My rant is ending and I apologize for anyone who reads this...gee, I hope no one reads this... I remember the traffic in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. very well. Nothing can compare to that. People across the world in larger cities have it much worse than me and I shouldn't complain. I just had to vent today because I've been cursing under my breath about it for too long.
Comforting note: I tried to get a decent picture of a new 400-bed mental health facility being built across the street from our campus. When it's complete, it will be nice to know I can take a short walk and check in whenever I need to.