Dodger Thoughts

Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers

You know the drill, folks. National League Division Series Game 5 starts at 5 p.m. Thursday, but you should aim to arrive at Dodger Stadium as early as possible.

• Auto gates open at 2 p.m. (Purchase parking in advance at dodgers.com/parking).
• Stadium gates open at 2:30 p.m. Batting practice will be underway.
• Dodger Stadium Express service from Union Station begins at 2:30 p.m.

For more information — including alternate transportation —
visit dodgers.com/transportation.

By Jon Weisman

Here are your tips and reminders for coming to Dodger Stadium in 2015

ARRIVING BY CAR

Advanced parking
Remember: Purchase your parking in advance

To save money and speed your journey into Dodger Stadium, prepay your parking online. This plan is intended to help accelerate traffic flow into the ballpark. Those with prepaid parking will move through dedicated autogates into Dodger Stadium parking.

• Visit dodgers.com/parking to purchase parking in advance — including on day of game.
• To encourage prepaid parking and the use of prepaid parking lanes, general parking is $10 online — same as last year, and available to all ticketholders — and $20 when purchased at the gate.
• Preferred parking is $35 in advance and $50 at the gate.
• Please have parking permit (printed, or on smartphone), credit card or cash ready when you reach the autogate.

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By Jon Weisman

For the upcoming May 8-14 homestand featuring games against the Giants and Marlins, fans can park in Lots 13 and 14 along Stadium Way near Elysian Park Avenue for $5 per game.

The $5 fee is available in advance and the day of the game on a first-come, first-served basis. The special offer is being made on a trial basis.

Lots 13 and 14 are located across the street from each other on Stadium Way, adjacent to the Los Angeles Fire Department training center, a short walk east of the main Elysian Park Avenue-Gate A entrance to Dodger Stadium. (Click map at right to enlarge.) The lots will open to the public at the same time as the other Dodger Stadium parking lots. A free shuttle will be available for disabled fans.

“We have added this parking availability to provide our fans with another savings option that offers easy in and out access and is a 10-to-15 minute walk to the stadium,” said Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten. “By parking in lots 13 and 14, fans can avoid some of the traffic entering and exiting the stadium lots before and after games.

“We continue to experiment with ways to improve access to Dodger Stadium. The more drivers that park in lots 13 and 14, the fewer the cars that will enter the Dodger Stadium lots through the auto gates and it will help in our ongoing efforts to ease traffic congestion.”

Click map to enlarge.

By Jon Weisman

Here are some tips and reminders for coming to Dodger Stadium in 2014 …

Advanced parking

Remember: If you’re coming to Dodger Stadium on Friday or any game this season, you want to purchase your parking in advance. This plan was implemented to accelerate traffic flow into the ballpark.

• The Dodger Stadium transportation and parking web page can be found here.
• General parking is $10 online — same as last year, and available to all ticketholders — and $15 at the gate.
• Preferred parking is $35 in advance and $50 at the gate.
• To purchase parking in advance, find the game on the Dodger schedule by clicking this link.
• Then click on the T symbol for your game.
• You will then see the various parking options to choose.
• New for 2014: Purchase parking in advance for Lots 13 and 14 and pay only $8. Lots 13 and 14 are offsite on Stadium Way (between Elysian Park Avenue and the 110) and allow for easy entrance and exit. Note that there is an uphill walk to the stadium from these lots.

Arrival and departure

• Depending on which gate you enter, you will be directed to park in a specific parking lot and specific parking space.
• If you would like to park in a specific area of the Dodger Stadium parking lot (i.e. first-base side), it is suggested you plan ahead and enter via the appropriate gate.
  • Sunset Gate A: Lots 1 and 2
  • Stadium Way Gate B (general parking only): Lot 2
  • Golden State Gate C: Lots 3 and 4
  • Academy Gate D: Lots 5, 6, and 7
  • Downtown Gate E: Lots 8, 10 and 11
• When leaving the game, you will be required to exit out of the same parking gate that you entered.
• You can get to all freeways from all parking gate exits.

Also: There is an ample amount of disabled parking spaces located in parking lots B, G, N, & P. Parking cashiers and attendants will direct those with a valid state-issued disabled parking permit and/or license plate to these areas. Locations are first-come, first-served. Once ADA stalls are filled, you will be directed to alternate locations. The Dodgers offer shuttle services to disabled fans; you’ll be assisted based on the call queue on a first-come, first-served basis.

Stadium Way Gate B

Stadium Way Gate B (formerly the Scott Avenue Gate) will be open in 2014.

• Access to the gate is only from Stadium Way and will not be permitted from directly through the Echo Park neighborhood from Scott Avenue, west of Stadium Way.
• The Dodgers will have two left turn lanes from Elysian Park Avenue, which will be directed to take a right turn onto Scott Avenue.
• This will assist in alleviating traffic along Sunset Blvd., which has backed up in the past.
• Neighborhood protection along Scott Avenue from Stadium Way to Glendale Blvd. will continue in addition to adding DOT officers.

 Dodger Stadium Express

The Dodger Stadium Express, the shuttle service from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium and back, returns for the fifth consecutive year. Fans are encouraged to use the many transportation alternatives that serve Union Station and that will connect them to the Dodger Stadium Express. For specific route and schedule information, fans can visit www.metro.net or call (323) GO METRO.

• The Dodger Stadium Express is free for ticketholders. Those without a ticket will pay regular one-way fare of $1.50.
• It uses a dedicated bus lane on Sunset Boulevard from Union Station to Elysian Park Avenue.
• Board the Dodger Express shuttle at the Patsaouras Bus Plaza adjacent to the east portal of Union Station.
• Service begins at 10 a.m. Opening Day and 90 minutes before typical games, and runs for 45 minutes after the game.
• Service will be provided every 10 minutes prior to the start of the game and run approximately every 30 minutes throughout the game.
• The Dodger Stadium Express will have two stops in 2014—behind the pavilions and a new stop at the Top Deck, Lot P.
• Parking at Union Station is $6.

MTA

• The Dodgers encourage use of MTA buses on Sunset Blvd. as well as using the Gold Line in Chinatown.
• The Dodgers also will have the No. 2 and No. 4 buses available from the Red Line station in Hollywood that will operate to the Dodger Stadium entrance.

 Pedestrian/bicycle

• The Dodgers’ main entrance, Sunset Blvd. Gate A along Elysian Park Avenue, features a dedicated pedestrian entrance with new lighting in an effort to encourage fans to utilize parking lots 13 and 14 along Stadium Way and the No. 2 and 4 buses along Sunset Blvd.
• The Dodgers also will have dedicated pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes (and additional bicycle racks) leading into the entrances formerly designed for autos only.

By Jon Weisman

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As part of a push to improve the traffic flow into Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers are not only offering but encouraging fans using individual game tickets to purchase parking in advance in 2014.

Advanced parking purchases will cost $10 — the same price as parking last year — and can be made any time before arrival at Dodger Stadium for a game. However, those who purchase parking upon arrival at the gate will be charged $15.

The advanced parking can either be printed at home or shown on one’s phone to be scanned upon entry. To ensure long-lasting protection and durability for the parking infrastructure, you may want to consider hiring Car Park Deck Coating services. The parent and child parking bays should also have proper markings to promote safety.

“If you do that, you can zip right through,” Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten told reporters today at Camelback Ranch. “The best case for us is everyone gets their $10 parking in advance. We don’t want to punish anyone — this is an incentive.”

Kasten said that the option during the 2013 playoffs to have free parking if you carpooled to the game didn’t have any impact on the volume of cars. So the next recommendation was to reduce the transaction time at the gate.

“We learn as we go,” Kasten said. “We keep experimenting.”

The Dodgers also will offer premium parking in advance at $35 and for $50 at the gate. Season ticket holders and mini-plan holders who did not purchase parking can take advantage of even a more reduced parking price by calling 323-DODGERS.

The rollout of advanced parking is one of a number of transportation initiatives coming this year from the Dodgers. From a press release:

• Restriping the many lots, modifying circulation patterns and improved on-site signage.
• Added bike racks to encourage bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation to Dodger Stadium. In case you get injured in an accident while riding your bike, an Orange County bicycle accident lawyer may be able to help you seek compensation.
• Enhance and promotion of the use of public bus on Sunset Boulevard and better marketing at the Metro Gold Line Chinatown and Red Line Hollywood Stations
• More and clearer way-finding signage directing traffic to underutilized gates
• Additional on-site parking spaces

In addition, the Union Station shuttle will add a second stop on the Dodger Stadium premises — at the top deck, in addition to beyond the outfield.