Leaving Central at the end of the day has always been a struggle. This year, a new factor has made the drive take far longer and more frustrating to get home.

Since the beginning of the school year, construction on Washington Street has affected students’ driving experience. The narrow lanes and the sheer amount of cars present at any time of the day make driving on Washington Street a disaster waiting to happen.

“I almost got into a car crash quite a few times since the school year started,” said senior Shanmuk Gudipati. “That’s just because the roads are so narrow and people don’t know how to stay in their lane.”

These problems are not limited to close calls. Some students have actually gotten into accidents attempting to get where they need to be on time. Getting to school, work and practice has become a challenge like never before.

“I’m part of the golf team, so we have practice at Naperbrook every day at 3:30, so getting out of school is a struggle because we have to [get to practice on time],” said junior Kelsey Driscoll. “Usually, it [wouldn’t] be too long, but we have to use Washington. Everyone’s trying to merge into one lane. The other day, when I was driving to golf practice, my car got sideswiped by someone getting into the lane because they didn’t check their blind spot. I was over 20 minutes late to practice that day.”

The construction has been the destruction of sleep schedules, forcing students to wake up earlier to get to school on time.

“I have to wake up earlier, get ready faster and leave earlier,” said senior Emma Dram. “I live pretty close to Central, so driving isn’t really a big issue for me, but it has affected my daily routine.”

Traffic has become a threat to Central’s recent push towards class attendance. Students are arriving late to classes more than ever citing “traffic” as their excuse.

“Last week, I was late every single day,” Gudipati said. “I even think on Thursday I was ten minutes late to my first class. I have to wake up earlier because the time it takes for me to get to school is double what it used to be.”

Getting to school takes so much longer that students like Driscoll leave their houses thirty minutes before they used to leave in order to be punctual. It’s been a month since school started and students have had enough of the construction. They just want to go back to their normal commute times, getting home before 4:00—without having to worry about getting into a car crash.

“I am finding myself a little frustrated,” Dram said. “I don’t know if the construction is taking longer than usual or if it’s on par. I’m not frustrated with the construction workers or anything, [I am] just more so frustrated with the overall traffic. It does make it a little inconvenient to get to school and get home.”