Charming, quaint, and some may say ‘Stars Hollow-esque.’ These are all adjectives that apply perfectly to the Town of Moraga. Part of the appearance that creates the cute and small-town atmosphere are the two main roads running through it that connect Moraga to any major highway. Ironically, their names are Moraga Road and Moraga Way.

Moraga Way predates the town’s official founding itself, paved in 1922 to encourage a student population for the arrival of the Saint Mary’s college Moraga campus, and Moraga Road is really just an expansion of Moraga Way. Prior to the paved road, it was a dirt wagon trail. With the town’s expansion, one would assume that more roads or possible routes connecting Moraga to other towns would occur naturally, but it is still only accessible through the two original roads, one lane roads that avoid highways.

While this information adds to the tight-knit community aspect of Moraga, it also provides some issues. Traffic congestion, especially surrounding schools, and higher incident frequencies, the entire town itself is a fire hazard with only two roads going in or out, and the issue of roadwork in a town with a 100 year old, one-lane road.

The accumulation of traffic surrounding schools, specifically Campolindo due to its unique location at the top of the hill connecting Moraga to Lafayette, is rather inconvenient. With school ending at either 3:00 or 3:30, and the majority of the student population of Campo leaving at the same time, blockups are inevitable. But the addition of only two directions to drive in Moraga doesn’t help. Junior Drew Shogan added how “The main reason my parents chose to live in Orinda, not Moraga, was because of all the traffic.”

Not shockingly, traffic and student drivers often lead to incidents. Students at Campolindo are very familiar with the warzone that is the Senior Lot or the ‘J-lot’, next to the baseball field. Both of these areas have high incident frequencies, due to the race to beat traffic when school gets out. Junior Nora Lawerence unfortunately experienced this frenzy around the parking lots when she got into a collision with another student, “my front headlight is busted and his car is scratched”.

The congestion provides a vicious cycle of rushing, and then accidents, which cause even more block-ups. Additionally, many cars that get hit are left with no note and upset drivers. Sophomore Chase Nickens has only had his driver’s license since the start of the 2025 school year, and his car got “rear ended on a one lane road during heavy traffic” when driving home after school one day.

Finally, the century old road running through Moraga requires regular maintenance. The constant road work only slows cars down as one lane needs to be stopped to allow the other to drive through. With the factors of traffic, incidents, road work, and fire hazards, it begs the question: should Moraga invest in building another road? Maybe even one that could connect the town to a major highway without having to drive through another town would be very beneficial?