Brunswick High School’s Dual Enrollment English 101 course was given an assignment to write a persuasive essay about a topic of their choosing. The Garnet & Gold Gazette staff chose their top 10 editorials to publish on our site. Staff used elements of news such as proximity, reader impact, human interest, and prominence within our community to publish relevant and enticing information on our site. 

The essays chosen did an amazing job informing readers on the content and creating persuasive arguments on the chosen topics.

“If You Have a Driveway, Park in it”

In my everyday commute to school, I find myself getting annoyed with one thing in particular: cars parked on the side of the street. As I drive down my neighborhood streets, I find something odd near those parallel parked cars: a vacant driveway. It always annoys me knowing that in neighborhoods such as my own, Brunswick Crossing, almost every house is built with a driveway and a garage. Yet, I see so few people using them. Instead, most of my neighbors opt to park their cars on the side of the street, taking up half of their respective sides of the road in the process. In neighborhoods where citizens have access to driveways, cars should be safely parked on their respective terraces, rather than hazardously parking your car on the side of the road.

 With rampant traffic, the smallest disruption can affect a person’s commute each day. To exit my neighborhood, I drive past Potomac Street, a street littered with cars parked on the side of the road. As a new driver, driving on these roads makes me the most tense, having to worry about accidentally colliding with a car on both sides of the road. Now, in a normal situation, I should not have to share my side of the road with anyone; but as of recently, I find myself having to share with cars that are not even in motion. This inconveniences both me and the driver in the opposing lane, as it forces me to drive closer to the opposite lane, and of course, the opposite driver has to drive closer to the curb of the road.

Neighborhood spaces are dominated by student drivers such as myself, and as the name would suggest, student drivers do not have much driving experience or knowledge. We are prone to make mistakes, and as unfortunate as it may be, that ‘mistake’ could end up damaging your car in the process. Now, is it safer to park your car away from the flow of traffic, or directly in the flow of traffic? Not everyone behind the wheel is going to make the wisest decisions, especially under pressure. New drivers experience the most pressure out of anyone else, as they are not rules to the rules of the road, or how to interact with other drivers. Before you park snugly against the side of the road, I suggest you think about the ultimate safety of your vehicle, before it could get possibly damaged. 

Now, a lot of people might say something along the lines of “Oh, but it’s so much more convenient!” Well, convenience for yourself is one pro compared to an ocean full of cons. Parallel parking in neighbors not only endangers yourself but also your car and the opposing driver. By doing this, you are putting an obscene amount of trust in both young and old drivers to avoid hitting your car. So, before you decide to park your nice gobsmack next to the curb, think of how angry your neighbors might be the next morning.

Driving in considerably “safe” places should not be as stressful, but I find myself having to think less of driving straight on a highway, rather than navigating a maze in my own neighborhood. By parking your car in its respective spot, the driveway, you benefit everyone around you and yourself. Drivers such as myself would not have to slow down to avoid parallel parked cars, nor would we have to drift into the opposite lane to avoid hitting one of them, all because your car was parked safely in your driveway.