Metro Parking Under-Used in Montgomery County

Most Metro commuters know a few tricks of the trade when it comes to parking.

At many stations, if you arrive too late in the morning, you may just be out of luck when it comes to snagging a space.

But it turns out there are more than enough parking spaces available to Metro riders at stations in Montgomery County. Some stations, though, are more popular for parkers than others, according to data released to Patch by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. 

Of the 13,884 parking spaces at eight Montgomery County Metro stations, only 82 percent were used on an average weekday in August 2011, the last time WMATA collected data on parking usage. A , which opened in April, has increased the parking capacity of the Montgomery County stations to more than 15,000 spaces.

The Rockville Metro station, with only 524 available parking spots, clocked the highest percentage of spots used, with 102 percent of the lot full on an average weekday. Metro spokesman Philip Stewart explained this statistic reflects the turnover in spaces throughout the day.

At the lowest end of the spectrum, only 45 percent of White Flint's 1,270 spaces were full on an average weekday.

This table reflects parking capacity and usage as of August 2011.

The parking expansion at the Glenmont station, which increased parking capacity to 3,000 spaces in April, is the most recent addition of new spaces in the metro system.

Stewart also confirmed no new parking garage capacity expansions are being planned, studied or funded by WMATA at this time.