San Jose Traffic puts more stress on De Anza students

De Anza College Students complain about San Jose traffic and how stressful it is to try make it to class on time. During peak hours extra time travel has increased in San Jose area from 24 minutes in 2015 to 38 minutes in 2016, according to The Business Journals

Out of five interviewed De Anza students, two said San Jose’s traffic congestion is increasing because of all the tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Apple offering job opportunities making it difficult for college students to get to their classes on time. The other three said it was because of gas prices.

Zade Mughannam, 22, Business Administration is a De Anza College student who works full-time at the Microsoft branch store in Palo Alto. Due to his hours at work, he can only attend school in the afternoon and onwards, which is during traffic. He said that it’s a struggle to get to class on time because of traffic.

“It takes me about 45 minutes to one hour. Sometimes traffic gets pretty bad where it forces me to run late to class because it took me so long to get to school,” said Mughannam.

Mughannam said that he always has to plan ahead in order for him to avoid traffic and get to class on time because he knows how bad traffic is in the afternoon.

“I always leave an hour before the time I want to go to school. I do this so I make sure I have time, even though I may be early to class,” said Mughannam.

Mughannam said the most time he spent in traffic on the way to De Anza College is one hour and a half. He tried to avoid traffic various times but always got stuck in it.

“No matter what way I took to get to school, there was traffic everywhere so it was impossible to find another way, “said Mughannam.

A graph showing San Jose traffic levels throughout the years.

California’s traffic congestion is becoming worse delaying people from personal business and work or school. Traffic congestion in California is increasing due to economic growth, meaning more job opportunities offered and more people attending college leading them to commute causing traffic,

A chart showing California's increase in traffic congestion.

according to The Sacramento Bee

 Traffic congestion in San Jose has affected many De Anza College students to get to their classes on time.

Alex Schrick, 23, marketing, is also having difficulties getting to De Anza College to attend class on time because of how heavy traffic is, which affects him in various ways.

“It takes me 40 minutes with traffic. I have been late about 5 times even though I plan ahead and leave early to school. Traffic has been extremely unpredictable for me, “said Shrick.

Shrick said by not showing up to class on time his teachers mark off points if he’s late so he has to do everything an hour earlier.

Shrick said that there were a few times he decided to skip class due to how bad the traffic was going to De Anza College.

“I decided not to attend any classes twice because I didn’t want to sit for an hour in traffic and then go sit in a classroom for another 3 hours. It is mentally unhealthy for you and unhealthy for your body, “said Shrick.

Many students at De Anza College sometimes fall behind in classes because they’re stuck in traffic for atleast one and 30 minutes leading them to miss all the important explanations and assignments done in class.

http://opportunityurbanism.org/2017/04/bay-area-residents-rightly-expect-traffic-get-worse/