Heavy Traffic Expected for Rutgers' May 13 Commencement

With an estimated 13,465 graduates, plus thousands of family members, friends and well-wishers from the Rutgers community, a crowd as large as 40,000 might fill the stadium.  Commencement draws much additional traffic to the area. Travelers should expect delays on local streets and on Route 18 in the vicinity of New Brunswick and Piscataway. Roadways including College Avenue, George Street, River Road, Hoes Lane and the John Lynch and Landing Lane bridges all will experience heavy traffic.

To help with traffic flow, all visitors driving to Commencement who previously requested a parking space should display hang tags that correspond to color-coded parking zones. Free shuttle buses from the Busch, Livingston, College Avenue and Cook/Douglass campuses, and the New Brunswick train station, will run frequently before and after the ceremony at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Those with scarlet tags must enter the Busch Campus via the intersection of River and Sutphen roads. For blue parking lots scattered throughout Busch, enter via Route 18 to Campus Road. Guests with orange tags can park near the Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC) on the Livingston Campus via Route 18 and streets from Metlars Lane to Avenue E. Green tag holders will be shuttled from the Cook/Douglass Campus. White tag holders must park in College Avenue lots and board buses on College Avenue near the Rutgers Student Center. Those attendees without passes are asked to park on the College Avenue Campus in one of the paid public parking lots.

The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences’ convocation is scheduled on the George H. Cook Campus at 10 a.m. on Monday May 14; the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy’s convocation is scheduled at the same time in the College Avenue gym. Motorists should anticipate delays on Nichol Avenue, College Farm Road, Ryders Lane and George Street.

Visitors are urged to allow extra travel time and plan alternate routes. Travelers near campus may tune in for traffic information on Rutgers Info Radio 530-AM. Information about commencement parking and shuttle service is available here.