The Montgomery County Department of Transportation recently installed “no parking” signs on the left side of Pyle Road by the back entrance to Whitman, effectively cutting the number of available parking spots by the baseball field in half. Students were outraged.

“It makes no sense why there’s no parking,” junior Sam Mermelstein said. “There are no driveways or houses along the road.”

The baseball field parking is where students who didn’t receive a parking permit park; about 50 students park there daily, usually lining up down both sides of Pyle Road. The county owns the road, and county traffic engineer Joe Pospisil said parking has never been legal there—the county just recently decided to put up the signs and start ticketing any offenders.

“Parking has been prohibited on the North East side since 2001, following a request by Walt Whitman High School officials and evaluation by the Department of Transportation,” Pospisil said. “School officials were concerned that two-way traffic flow, especially for buses, would be obstructed if vehicles were parked on both sides of the roadway based on the road width.”

Neighborhood residents had complained about the continued parking, leading the county to put up signs notifying students of the no parking rule, head of security Cherisse Milliner said.  These signs prompted principal Robert Dodd to notify students and parents via email March 27 that students were no longer permitted to park there.

With no signs that parking in the area will be restored any time soon, students will either need to arrive at school earlier to fight for spots or find another method of transportation.

“The county should realize that students need to be able to park there,” junior Sean Fleming said. “There just isn’t enough space for everybody who needs to park at the baseball field to be able to now. The signs are excessive and unnecessary.”