"Don't Drink and Drive" is a message ASU students received in the form of a 4-by-10 foot sign this summer at Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard.
The City of Tempe Public Works Division installed the blue-lighted street sign at the traffic light that curves around Grady Gammage Auditorium.
According to Tempe Community Relations Coordinator Shelley Hearn, the sign was installed after the city received many requests from residents.
"We got a number of requests that we install some kind of message to remind people not to drink and drive in the downtown and ASU area," Hearn said.
The sign, paid for by the Tempe Public Works department for less than $1,000, was installed on June 23, said Shelly Seyler, senior civil engineer in the Tempe Transportation Division.
Seyler said former Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano, selected the location during his term.
"Apache and Mill is a pretty big entrance to the downtown area," Seyler said. "It's a great message to those who enter Tempe that we don't accept drinking and driving."
Computer information systems sophomore Michael Haugen said that the sign won't make a difference.
"We have multi-million dollar ad campaigns that can't stop [drunken driving]; what will a sign do?" Haugen said.
But pre-business junior Christopher Fenimore said he feels that the sign will help to keep some from driving under the influence.
"It will prevent [drunken driving]," Fenimore said. "It serves as a warning."
Kinesiology junior Derek Smith, a bartender at Famous Sam's in Mesa, said he feels the only thing that will curb impaired driving is tougher laws and higher fines.
"The ticket [is expensive] and you have to take a bunch of classes, plus jail time; that's a lot to handle," Smith said.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 43 percent of all traffic accidents in Arizona in 2002 were alcohol related.
"People who use their brains won't drink when they drive," Haugen said.
Reach the reporter at jenna.eckenrode@asu.edu.
