Drivers should expect heavy traffic next week around the sites of ASU's graduation ceremonies.
Mary Croft of Parking and Transit Services said she expects traffic around Wells Fargo Arena and Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium to be heavier than normal up to a half hour before and after each ceremony.
Sixteen commencement and convocation ceremonies are scheduled for the two sites on May 12, and "they pretty much come one right after the other," Croft said.
Around Wells Fargo Arena, free public parking will be available in lots 59 and 59 north and in parking structures 5 and 7.
Disabled parking will be available in Lot 58, while Lot 52 west of the arena will be reserved for people specially invited by the University.
Croft said disabled parking in Lot 58 would be limited, but disabled visitors could also park in Parking Structure 7 because it is equipped with elevators.
"If they find the disabled [lot] is full they can just go right across the street," she said.
Croft also said PTS would provide rides to visitors who park farther away from the arena.
"We take our enforcement people and have them at each entrance with a golf cart to help people who have to park farther away, to give them rides to the Wells Fargo Arena as a courtesy," she said.
Public parking and a number of disabled parking spaces will also be available in Lot 3, surrounding Gammage Auditorium.
Parts of Lot 16 in Tempe Center and Lot 17 West, located south of Apache Boulevard, will be open for public parking.
Croft cautioned that elsewhere normal parking charges and restrictions would be in place, including charges for parking in ASU's visitor lots.
"We open up the surface lots for free parking, but the visitor lots still have to charge because we have to pay the people that sit in there," she said.
Officers from the ASU Department of Public Safety will direct traffic around Wells Fargo Arena and Gammage Auditorium in connection with commencement and convocations, said ASU spokesman Manny Romero.
He said DPS officers would also patrol in and around the arena during commencement.
"In many cases it's just a lot of traffic directing, traffic control and crowd control because people are coming from a lot of different areas," Romero said.
Romero said seven to 10 officers will be assigned to commencement patrols at any given time. He said he was unaware of any plans to set up additional DUI patrols.
In Tempe, a regularly scheduled DUI squad will work on the night of commencement, but Tempe police will not deploy any additional staff or patrols, said police Sgt. Dan Masters.
"We don't usually see a significant increase in calls or problems because of graduation day," Masters said.
Reach the reporter at brian.indrelunas@asu.edu.
Map of ASU commencement parking:
Additional parking for Gammage Auditorium may be found in Structure 1 or Lot 40.
