The parking situation at Lincoln is one of the most controversial topics among students who drive to school. Lincoln needs to do something drastic: like add a parking garage. Many other students also agree we need a change, but why? Lincoln has about 1,700 students yet we only have roughly 85 student parking spaces, and that’s on a good parking day.
These spaces don’t have lines guiding the cars which makes parking even more infuriating when people take up more than one spot. The parking lot we do have is small and only for Lincoln staff. The other parking options are in the front and back of the school which the students refer to as ‘the back ins’.
Senior Devin Nobil has been driving to school for three years, and parking has been a consistent problem for her, “The parking situation is ridiculous, and something needs to be done because I don’t think it can go on like this”. She continued, “[Even] if you show up to school 10 minutes early, you must park like 5 blocks away, or you’ll get a ticket.”
Our school is near 45th, which has many businesses causing almost all of the blocks surrounding Lincoln to be two-hour parking. This makes it more difficult for students to find a spot, and causes some students to resort to parking illegally. Students who park in the two-hour parking zones must leave their classes every two hours to re-park their car, or risk a ticket up to $100.
Teachers get upset about students disrupting class and some refuse to let students leave class. However, this is unfair, since many students don’t have another choice and can’t afford to pay for expensive parking tickets all the time.
There are no good solutions for Lincoln, and here’s why:
Public transit is a good option for those with a convenient bus route and for underclassmen who can’t drive, but it’s not the answer for everybody. Lincoln’s district extends to the Queen Anne neighborhood, and bussing from there to Wallingford can be very inconvenient. Also, when it gets dark earlier, it can be dangerous to take the bus home, causing more students to resort to driving instead.
On top of this, extracurriculars can make public transit even less feasible and driving a more attractive option for students. Many sports, such as golf and gymnastics have practice right before or after school and for some students it’s impossible to get to practice and school on time via bus.
Brevon Campbell (’25) shares, “I play golf and so does my little sister, if we had to bus to practice every day after school, we would have to bus to Interbay with our clubs and take up extra room. It would be unfair to everyone on the bus, and we would be late every day.”
There are also plenty of people that don’t need to drive to school but do it anyways, so what can we do to open spaces for the people that need them?
Frances Staulcup (’26) offers an easy solution: “I carpool to school with my brother and his friend, so we don’t have to take up multiple parking spots.” Carpooling is a great way for multiple people to get to school efficiently. It helps limit cars, saves gas, and protects the environment.
Students that live nearby can also walk or bike to school. During the schools remodel, they made a point to add bike racks, installing multiple at the front, back, and the side entrance of the school for students and faculty to use.
These steps could reduce the total number of students parking and open up spaces for those who live far from school.
But none of these measures will be enough to truly fix Lincoln’s parking problem. The only long-term solution that will make any sense is something drastic – building a parking garage.
There are many things that go into building a garage such as considering feasibility, designing, permitting, approvals, site preparation, construction, and finishing touches. All these things would take a long time (A few months to two years), but it’s what Lincoln needs, and it will be worth it.
This problem isn’t going away, so we need to start this as soon as possible.
Lincoln High school doesn’t have another long-term idea for parking to ensure that students can get to and park at school legally and effectively. The only solution is to build a parking garage. This is overdue and it needs to be done sooner rather than later.
Until these plans can be discussed further, SPS needs to add lines on the front and back back-in spots so more cars can fit there. Rosemary Thornton (’25) says, “Because there aren’t lines on the only parking spaces for students, people park really bad. And then we can’t use up all the space, but with lines we could fit a lot more cars.”
This option is only temporary and Lincoln is going to need a parking garage in the future. Instead of putting it off until we don’t have another choice, we need to start this project for the future of Lincoln staff and students.
