The 2025-26 school year has been marked by constant changes in traffic patterns outside Meridian and Mary Ellen Henderson, mostly affecting the senior and staff lots. On Oct. 3, 2025, Meridian Transportation announced that students and staff would no longer be able to make a left from Leesburg Pike into Mustang Alley between 8:00 and 8:30 AM. However, this regulation was lifted a couple of months after.
The issue began at the end of the 2024-25 school year, when Meridian’s former School Resource Officers (SROs), Sergeant Chuquillangui and Officer Reyes, were promoted within the police force, leaving the secondary campus without an SRO. One of the jobs of the SROs was to direct traffic at the intersection between Leesburg Pike and Mustang Alley. Without anyone directing traffic, driving in the area became much more difficult.
This traffic was only made more difficult by the construction in the West Broad development.
“What we noticed immediately when we started school this year was traffic was a bit chaotic,” Meridian Principal Peter Laub explained. “Now add to that…before you get to McDonald’s, there was a new traffic light…that traffic light wasn’t on yet, and because of the road work, they had torn up the median.”
The school district requested a police officer to come and direct traffic in the area, allowing students and staff to drive in the area safely. The police, however, refused to send someone to direct traffic. Instead, they set up cones preventing drivers from making a left turn off Leesburg onto Mustang Alley between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m.
“[The traffic cones] made it much safer for buses to exit the parking lot, for cars to exit the parking lot cleanly, because there was just traffic going right or coming straight,” Laub explained.
Only a couple of months later, those traffic cones were removed, with no explanation to students or staff, to the frustration of some drivers.
“I’ve had it happen where I’m turning right from the right turn lane, and somebody’s not paying attention to the right turn lane, and they almost hit me because they’re trying to get into the school,” senior Fiona Gillaspy said.
Although this change was difficult for some students, others much prefer having the left turn reopened.
“It was just like they blocked off a part of it, so I had to go another way. And then that was just really annoying. But then recently, they’ve adjusted it, so the time is a little better now,” senior Katherine Bickel explained.
The cones were removed after the traffic light at Chestnut Street was finished, making traffic more controlled and safe in the area.
“That traffic light is up and working. The medians are now fully in place. There are ‘no U-turn’ signs … I think from a police perspective, they’re not needed because there’s a traffic light now that will help traffic flow,” Laub stated.
The Lasso reached out to the police department but did not receive a response. These frequent changes in traffic flow have caused problems for students who try to access Meridian in the morning, as the congestion has greatly increased their commutes.
“I leave my house at 8:00, and I don’t get to school until 8:30. I live like 10 minutes away,” Bickel described.
The congestion can cause large numbers of cars to come to a standstill.
Senior Sophie Hazan described how the traffic can back up as far as the intersection between Haycock Road and Broad Street.
“Even if it is a green arrow, it’s usually backed up by a ton of cars…because once you turn left, the next light is red. It’s always red, which makes the intersection completely clog up so nobody can really move,” she said.
Not only is the traffic slow, but it is also quite unpredictable, making it even more difficult for drivers to determine when to leave for school.
“Even if I do leave at a reasonable time, depending on the traffic, I could be up to five minutes late to class, or two minutes early,” senior Aaron Jacobson noted.
This traffic is compounded by the construction that is taking place in the next-door West Broad development.
“They were doing construction in the right turn lane the other day, and I think it causes some restriction when it comes to which roads we can use,” Gillaspy said.
However, she also noted that there are benefits to the construction, such as the new traffic light at Broad Street and Chestnut.
“[The traffic light] makes it more difficult to come in, but it honestly also makes it easier to go out, so I’m not averse to it,” she described.
Despite this, other students find the construction to be doing much more harm than good to the traffic flow.
“The tow trucks are, like, right in the middle of it, and there’s potholes, so you have to swerve around. It just takes forever,” Bickel said.
Others believe that the issue is not related to construction at all. Mustang Alley is quite small and only has one entrance and exit that is accessible in the morning. The same applies to the senior lot. Some students believe that this is where the real issue lies.
“If I’m being honest, the main bottleneck, I believe, is that there’s only one entrance into the parking lot and also the fact that we only have one parking lot,” Jacobson pointed out.
As construction continues, the traffic jam does not seem like it will let up any time soon. Although Principal Laub is sympathetic, he explained there was little he could do.
“This was the solution that was put forth by our police, so all I can say is I sympathize.”
