WOODMONT AVE., NEW BETHESDA GARAGE OPEN WITH FREE PARKING BY BETHESDA ROW (VIDEO/PHOTOS)

Drivers take advantage of
the reopened Woodmont Avenue

The new Capital Crescent Garage has opened across from Bethesda Row at Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues, and as good as that news is, there's also great news - you can park in the garage for free until March 1, 2015. Here's a tour of the garage, which includes electric vehicle charging spaces, bicycle parking, and 960 parking spaces available to the public.

Strolling along the temporary
pedestrian walkway towards
Bethesda Row on Woodmont

Of course, opening the garage meant reopening Woodmont Avenue. There are 2 vehicle lanes, and as you saw in my report yesterday, a pedestrian walkway set off by barriers. No bicycle lanes are available at this stage, and the sidewalks are still closed. There is some dirt in the walking area toward the pedestrian entrance near the Capital Crescent Trail.

Woodmont near Crescent Plaza

Several readers were asking yesterday about the left turn off of Leland, and the Jiffy Johns. You still can't turn left from Leland onto Woodmont, and the portable toilets are indeed still there at that end of Woodmont.

Please use caution...

...Woodmont Avenue is now
open, and we wanted to give
you a full 30 seconds notice to use
caution in the new traffic pattern

One interesting point is that the opening process diverted from standard traffic procedures. The public knows there is a standard procedure, because when the ultimately-aborted effort to reopen Woodmont occurred last summer, electronic signs were posted on major routes far in advance. Two weeks in advance, in fact. These signs gave an approximate opening date, and alerted drivers that traffic patterns would soon change. No such advance alert was provided for yesterday's opening, which was certainly not in the best interests of safety and traffic management. In fact, the electronic signs were only activated after the road was reopened, giving unsuspecting drivers only moments to adjust.

Even the garage name was secret

Assuming the inspections that would green-light the garage and street openings are not so weak that they can be conducted in minutes, clearly the approximate date could have been forecast and announced, as it was this past August. Instead, the priority seems to have been to have a tightly-controlled rollout of the news. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation press release was not posted until 11:58 AM yesterday. MCDOT's parking Twitter account made the announcement even later, as did other County-related Twitter accounts.

MCDOT press release at 11:58 AM

I personally did not receive a press release or advance notice from the County, nor from the developer, regarding the reopening. That would not seem to make sense if the point is to alert the public to the new parking availability, and new traffic pattern. What in the world was gained from keeping this important information secret?

The gates are up for now

But starting March 1, you'll
have to pay during these hours

Thank the Monopoly Guy for
Free Parking

Cyclists weren't left out

Shiny elevator doors

It probably won't be this easy
to move around on a Friday night
this summer

Official logo

Elon Musk would approve

Proof this garage was designed for
the future of transportation

Don't touch this

Pay at one of these starting
March 1

Safety first

Driver having no problem picking up
speed on the reopened Woodmont Avenue

Pedestrians will have to use this

Eventually, you might pick up
a treat from the Paul Bakery before
heading back to your car...

...at this trailside pedestrian
entrance to the garage

960 spaces sound great, when you remember
that the existing public garage at Bethesda
Row was often filled to capacity last summer