The Bethesda Row Arts Festival is going on this weekend. Unfortunately, people who want to drive to Bethesda for the festival will find much of the parking taken up by exhibitors’ trucks which could be parking a few blocks away.

Ben Ross sent over this photo of the premium location parking lot at Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues, often the first one visitors to Bethesda try to park in:

This is the most convenient lot for many visitors. However, it’s also the most convenient for exhibitors and employees of local businesses, many of whom park here on Saturday morning and don’t move all weekend.

Ben writes,

Notice that all the best parking spots are filled with the artists’ delivery vans, which will sit there for the entire weekend. Meanwhile the customers are circling looking for spaces in the back part of the lot.

If the Bethesda parking district charged for parking on Saturday evening in the lots and garages that fill up, employees and delivery trucks (some of which spent every weekend sitting in this lot) some of them sit in this lot all weekend) would park farther away — still for free! — at minor inconvenience, leaving the most convenient spaces open to be filled by a succession of paying customers.

We’ve advocated for charging for premium parking in Bethesda many times. There’s plenty of parking in Bethesda for weekends, since the county has numerous large garages around the area. Since most of the activity on weekends is right on Bethesda Row, however, the parking right there gets filled up quickly, while the rest has plenty of extra space.

If the most desirable lots and garages cost money on weekends while the farther ones stayed free, those who want to save money or who will be staying for long periods of time will park a few blocks away, while people who really need to stop in quickly to one of the stores or restaurants will be able to find a space right on the main street.

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Tagged: bethesda, maryland, montgomery, montgomery county, parking

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.