The Timber Creek High School schedule for the year only allotted 4 minutes for students to travel from class to class. Even in the beginning administrators found that this is not nearly long enough given the size of the school and opted to allow students more “tardies” to make up for it. The miniscule time given to deal with traffic and go the distance causes many issues for students.
The average student has many classes across all four halls. Using a distance measuring wheel provided by track coach Dan Strong, we walked six common routes to measure the distance students travel during passing periods.
One of the longest stretches an athlete will face going between classes is the distance from the field house to any classroom near North Hall. The distance from the field house to reach the Talon classroom (M 104) is nearly a quarter of a mile — 1,263 feet or .24 miles. To arrive on time, a student needs to go a consistent 3.6 miles per hour. However, the hallways are clogged during passing period with people socializing and traffic from Central and Main Halls, so the average student is unable to always make it on time.
Another daily struggle for students is going from a Math class to language or social studies. The 1,174 feet can take a toll on many students and getting to class on time is not always possible.
Freshman Caroline Oliphint experiences the hardship everyday. “I have one class in North Hall, one class in South Hall and if I don’t get to the front of the line, get out of class right away and run, I will be late.”
One of the main issues is all the traffic derived from the choke point at the entrance of Central Hall, coupled large amounts of people standing idle in the middle of the hallways. The difficulty of reaching class on time is amplified for those who lack in height, such as sophomore Megan Khuu.
“There’s so much traffic and like weaving through people and like being small, it’s hard, like the bigger people push you against the walls,” Khuu said.
This experience remains true for many students attempting to make their way through the hall.
Six Common Routes
Talon reporters Jonathan Samudio and Gracy Whitaker (who contributed to writing this story) measured the distances between each start/end point twice with the measuring wheel and averaged the figures. All measurements were done while hallways were completely clear and went directly from start to finish. This means some routes may be longer or shorter during a passing period with regular levels of congestion (more people in the hallways) or if a student needs to make a stop at some other location.
Due to the multitude of routes possible, the reporters settled on just six common routes. Their findings are below:
Route 1
Field House/M 104 (Talon HQ)
1,263 feet
Route 2
M 104/End of North Hall
477 feet
Route 3
End of North Hall to Cafeteria
625 feet
Route 4
End of North Hall to End of South Hall, Upstairs
1,055 feet
Route 5
Front Attendance to Back Attendance
684 feet
Route 6
Language Hallway to North Hallway
1,174 feet