New signs have been posted in the parking lot of the Bethesda Row Giant grocery store, warning of a 2-hour parking time limit. Vehicles parked more than two hours in the lot, or those left by "walk-off" drivers who go somewhere besides Giant after parking, will be towed at the vehicle owner's expense. How aggressive the enforcement will be remains to be seen in the coming weeks. In the previous decade, downtown Bethesda was the scene of tense debate over predatory towing schemes driven by profit, versus the need to keep spaces open for business patrons.
Parking lot is usually full. When I spoke to management, I was told they don’t have the personnel to monitor walk off parking.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to give see an English teacher mark up that sign's sentence, "Vehicles exceeding. . ."
ReplyDeleteAn extraordinary use of the passive voice: Who parked the car? Who'll tow the car? Does the car itself ("own expense") pay for the towing?
Would referring to the shopper/parker himself or herself be too confrontational?
I don't recall whether that parking lot was on the list of worse lots to park, but in my mind it should be. The size of the spaces and the width of the isles make it very difficult to navigate, let alone get in and out of your car. These lots follow the density standards of MoCo which are to the extreme.
ReplyDeleteI always park in the underground garage - all it took was for one old lady backing into my car once to make me bypass the main parking lot for good.
ReplyDeleteIt's a crying shame that we can't post memes, gifs or emojis on this blog in the comments section...
ReplyDeleteIt's about time. I park in the garage below it, and if I go mid-day during the week, nearly all spaces are taken. Based on the few shoppers in the store, the lot isn't full of shoppers.
ReplyDeleteUsed to be you'd just have some cars at the far end of the garage (employee cars). Now it's much worse.
Poorly designed lot and poorly designed garage. Hoping for better at the new Westbard Giant.
ReplyDeleteThe Battery Lane Harris Teeter garage has that insane steep drop getting in but is otherwise OK unless someone parks right up against your l car door, forcing you to climb in thru the passenger door.
I get why they need to enforce parking rules. However maybe too aggressive is countrproductive.
ReplyDeleteFor example someone needs to run to the ATM before using the store.
I watched a tow truck driver work on a car parked at the Paint store on Norfolk Ave. It took him like 5 minutes to take picture of license plate, back in, hook up and drive off.
Learning
@2:50 PM: I mostly agree: The Battery Lane HT parking garage is a nightmare except for maybe close to closing time on Sunday nights. Somebody side-swiped my car last summer (hundreds of dollars of damage) and didn't bother to leave a note. I don't park there any more.
ReplyDeleteThe Target garage and TJ's top-level surface parking are also pretty bad.
The Safeway on Bradley is the best for parking imo (among the options in the neighborhood).
I think the Bethesda Library parking lot also has warnings about walk-offs.
@1:21 Hah, my wife's car got backed into in that parking lot. The woman backing up, in a new BMW SUV, apparently didn't see my wife's white car directly behind her, stopped in the travel lane (due to cars in front of her) even though BMWs have a backup camera and sensors.
ReplyDeleteSure the driver's insurance paid, but it was annoying to not have use of the car for 2 weeks while it got repaired.
The new Trader Joe's lot is horrible too. Worse than the TJ/Target lot!
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