Getting around school can be tough. So tough, in fact, that people walk all over the place, trying to take the shortest route to their destination. Instead of this silly willy-nilly approach to traversing the school, how about something better? Take these words with a grain of salt if you wish, but the following tips and diagrams are sure to help anyone get around better.

“We have laws controlling basically everything, so why don’t we have some good ones for our own safety?” junior David Delgado said.

1) Follow Basic Traffic Laws

Although some people try to follow basic traffic laws when navigating campus, it often ends up falling apart after the first week of school, despite how simple it is. The basics of the rule are simply to stay to the right, and if you need to pull over, do it on the side of the hall. Essentially, treat the halls like highways and open passages like a racetrack. This is to say that once you enter an enclosed hall, keep moving forward to your destination, and if you are out in the open, you can take the shortest distance to reach your destination, but expect the traffic to be most dense there. In addition, when using the stairs, stay to the right. On multi-lane stairs like the ones at the front of the 9000 building, use either lane, but within that lane, stay on the right. This is a simple and easy rule that most people already follow but can get ruined by those few people running up the wrong side of the stairs. Do not be those people.

2) Act Like a Race Car

Open areas, on the other hand, are practically unsolvable from a logistic point of view, being very crowded and having no set entrance or exit points. Instead of plunging straight into the middle of the crowd, try to rotate clockwise around the open area, like cars in a racetrack. By its nature, it will create unofficial walking lanes, with faster people tending towards the outside and slower people gravitating to the center of the whirlpool, where groups of people can likely even stop walking for a second with no consequence to the overall flow of traffic. Unfortunately, unlike in the halls, this requires the cooperation of the entire student body inside that area. This tip also applies to the regular halls as well, where the faster walkers can tend toward the left of their lane, just like a real life race car. Saying Kachow is optional, but suggested during this maneuver.

“Race cars are cool, but when I’m going around the pavilion, I like to pretend I’m an airplane to go faster,” junior Aleksander Aguilar said.

3) Try Not To Incite Road Rage

It’s one thing to abide by rules of the road, and another thing to abide by arbitrary rules made by someone. It’s yet another, more ridiculous thing to take those arbitrary rules and follow them blindly. This is to say that there are certainly situations where these rules might not always apply, or that using these techniques might incite road rage among nonparticipants. Acting like a race car with sufficient room is fine, but if it gets really crowded, swerving in and out of lanes might not be a good idea, and can lead to a multi-person pileup leaving many people upset and late for class.

Hopefully by reading these tips you have become a more knowledgeable walker and will become better at traversing the rough terrain of school. Safe walking!