Which Metro parking lots fill up, and which don’t
If you drive to a Metro station with parking after rush hour, are you likely to find the lot full, or be able to park? Here’s a diagram to help you.
A Montgomery County couple that lives in a car-dependent area, but is interested in trying to use Metro, asked this question recently. They’re not going to use it for commuting, but might go downtown mid-day. The rush will have ended, which also means some parking lots might fill up, and they don’t want to go to a station only to find no spaces.
Unfortunately, Metro does not have a real-time tracker to tell riders (or potential riders) exactly how full a lot is at any given time. It would be great if an app could show you, but given everything WMATA has to do right now, it’s also understandably perhaps not the top priority.
We can, however, get a good idea from historical information. Metro does track how many people pay to park at each lot. Sherri Ly, WMATA media relations manager, sent this June 2015 parking report. It gives the parking capacity for each station and also the “utlization,” which is the number of people who paid to park per weekday, divided by the number of spaces.
The numbers are below, and Peter Dovak visualized this data in the above diagram. On the image, each circle’s area is proportional to the number of spaces in the lot, and the colored inner circle’s area is proportional to the average utilization for fiscal year 2015.
Lot Capacity | Paid Utilization | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Station/Region | June 2015 | June 2014 | June 2015 | FY 2015 YTD | June 2014 | FY 2014 YTD |
MONTGOMERY COUNTY | ||||||
Grosvenor | 1,894 | 1,894 | 103% | 98% | 103% | 98% |
White Flint | 1,270 | 1,270 | 57% | 62% | 56% | 53% |
Twinbrook | 1,097 | 1,097 | 65% | 61% | 65% | 60% |
Rockville | 524 | 524 | 109% | 103% | 109% | 103% |
Shady Grove | 5,745 | 5,745 | 91% | 85% | 91% | 86% |
Glenmont | 2,998 | 2,998 | 82% | 81% | 82% | 73% |
Wheaton | 977 | 977 | 31% | 29% | 31% | 31% |
Forest Glen | 596 | 596 | 102% | 96% | 102% | 95% |
Montgomery Total | 15,101 | 15,101 | 83% | 79% | 83% | 78% |
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY | ||||||
New Carrollton | 3,519 | 3,519 | 91% | 81% | 90% | 84% |
Landover | 1,866 | 1,866 | 41% | 39% | 41% | 40% |
Cheverly | 500 | 500 | 96% | 81% | 96% | 85% |
Addison Road | 1,268 | 1,268 | 51% | 50% | 51% | 48% |
Capitol Heights | 372 | 372 | 89% | 80% | 89% | 80% |
Greenbelt | 3,399 | 3,399 | 81% | 72% | 80% | 74% |
College Park | 1,820 | 1,820 | 66% | 55% | 66% | 57% |
P.G. Plaza | 1,068 | 1,068 | 46% | 46% | 46% | 44% |
West Hyattsville | 453 | 453 | 95% | 84% | 95% | 86% |
Southern Avenue | 1,980 | 1,980 | 61% | 52% | 61% | 58% |
Naylor Road | 368 | 368 | 107% | 98% | 107% | 100% |
Suitland Garage | 1,890 | 1,890 | 67% | 61% | 67% | 60% |
Branch Avenue | 3,072 | 3,072 | 103% | 94% | 102% | 94% |
Morgan Blvd. | 608 | 608 | 89% | 88% | 89% | 84% |
Largo | 2,200 | 2,200 | 89% | 84% | 88% | 83% |
Prince George’s Total | 24,383 | 24,383 | 69% | 69% | 77% | 71% |
Maryland Total | 39,484 | 39,484 | 72% | 73% | 79% | 74% |
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA | ||||||
Deanwood | 194 | 194 | 51% | 49% | 54% | 49% |
Minnesota Ave. | 333 | 333 | 116% | 106% | 101% | 103% |
Rhode Island Ave | 221 | 221 | 98% | 101% | 106% | 102% |
Fort Totten | 408 | 408 | 107% | 110% | 115% | 100% |
Anacostia Garage | 808 | 808 | 40% | 45% | 50% | 45% |
District of Columbia Total | 1,964 | 1,964 | 74% | 76% | 79% | 73% |
NORTHERN VIRGINIA | ||||||
Huntington | 3,617 | 3,617 | 73% | 71% | 76% | 73% |
West Falls Church | 2,009 | 2,009 | 62% | 66% | 104% | 95% |
Dunn Loring | 1,326 | 1,326 | 85% | 85% | 106% | 92% |
Vienna | 5,169 | 5,169 | 89% | 89% | 104% | 97% |
Franconia | 5,069 | 5,069 | 74% | 71% | 77% | 72% |
Van Dorn St | 361 | 361 | 103% | 107% | 114% | 108% |
East Falls Church | 422 | 422 | 120% | 117% | 126% | 120% |
Wiehle-Reston East | 2,300 | 100% | 82% | |||
Northern VA Total | 20,273 | 17,973 | 81% | 79% | 91% | 85% |
System Total | 61,721 | 59,421 | 75% | 75% | 83% | 77% |
Some lots show a utilization over 100%. That’s because if someone parks in a station, then leaves, and another person pays to park in that same space, it counts as two people. For a lot that’s totally full and has some turnover, the utilization can go over 100%.
Ly said that in the parking industry, an occupancy level of 90% is considered “full.” Or to put it in terms that relate to riders, if a station is reliably over 90% filled, it’s risky to try to park there unless you arrive early. Much lower, and there’s a lot of space going unused, which is wasteful.
At stations that fill up, Metro and the area governments could look into ways to help more people reach the station other than by driving. At stations that don’t, perhaps those are top spots to consider transit-oriented development on the parking lot, and where the developer doesn’t need to rebuild as many spaces as there are today.
Metro is organizing a series of movie nights at Metro station parking lots, partly to engage with surrounding communities but also to bring attention to generally underused parking lots. Upcoming movie nights will be August 8 at West Falls Church, which Ly said “saw a drop-off in parking once the Silver Line opened,” and August 22 at Twinbrook, both at 6:30 pm. Ly also said Metro will launch a campaign this fall to communicate where there is parking space in the Metro system.