I'm curious about people's experience with the availability of parking spaces at the Shady Grove Metro station. While I work from home, there are many times I need to go downtown for meetings. I have not felt that I could trust there would be a space at SG, so I drive to White Flint where I know I can leave my car (even though I may have a long walk). My trips downtown have begun to increase in frequency, so I thought there might be enough experience in the community to advise me about Shady Grove. For example: is there a time in the early morning when spaces are fairly available? By what time can I count on there being no spaces? Does this experience vary by the day of the week? I know about the "guaranteed spaces," but I don't need the parking consistently enough, even if a space was available.

Perhaps the accumulated lore of the community would help other Kentlands commuters, too.

-- Joel Aronson (jaronson@erols.com), September 07, 2001

Answers

I'll give you my impressions after commuting downtown on a daily basis for the last year. Also, I have used the parking garage exclusively, and not the parking lots.

Now that school has begun again this week, it's become more competitive for spaces. I would say that if you are not at the garage by 7:45 to 8:00 am, you may not get a space. On Fridays, however, you probably can get there later and be OK.

One good option after these times is to use the satellite lot at Quince Orchard and I-270. It's free to park in the lot, and shuttle bus service to Metro is also free. These buses run frequently until about 9:30, and I would say that this adds no more than 10 minutes to my commute downtown.

Maybe someone else can comment about riding the Ride-On on bus to Shady Grove directly from Kentlands.

Good luck!

-- Bob Mauri (newurban@erols.com), September 07, 2001.

Great question.

I have commuted on and off for the past four years to crystal city via shady grove metro. I agree that if you don't get to shady grove before 8am the likelihood of finding a parking spot immediately is low. After 8am, if you find a spot at all, it usually adds an additional 10+ minutes of searching to your commute time. For this reason, particularly in the last two years, I have all but abandoned using the metro on a regular basis.

I would be highly supportive of a dedicated city or county bus route from major town centers in the city of Gaithersburg to shady grove metro with no stops in between if there was citizen support of such a plan. What does everyone else think about spending city/couny dollars on a dedicated direct bus line from one or more of the major town centers in Gaithersburg? Would you be able/willing to leave your car at home if reliable, dedicated, and affordable service was provided?

Best regards

-- Austin Decker (adeck911@aol.com), September 08, 2001.