Heather Curtis
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON (WMAL) – County Executive Marc Elrich has proposed raising the cap for hourly parking on popular streets in downtown Bethesda at peak times from $2.25 an hour to as much as $4.

“I don’t think that the council should authorize $4. Seventy-eight percent is just a massive increase,” said Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson who represents Bethesda.

The county’s transpiration director, Al Roshdieh said at a transportation committee meeting Thursday $4 is the cap, and it might not ever get that high. He said the price would only be as high as needed to achieve the target 10% space availability.

“The whole idea is to actually do what the industry is doing here…founded that this is the best to help businesses,” Roshdieh told the committee.

Roshdieh explained the plan would have prices decrease on streets with low demand or times when demand is low.

“I am still skeptical that the demand pricing is gonna go down as far as it’s gonna go up,” Friedson said.

Roshdieh said the plan is not being proposed to generate revenue but rather to encourage people to use parking garages to free up street parking.

Council member Hans Riemer spoke in favor of the proposal saying it is about intelligent management of public space so that businesses can prosper.

“What’s good for Bethesda and every urban district is that people know that when they go there, and they don’t have a lot of time to spend, they need to run in and out of a retail situation that they can get a spot.

At this point the county is researching demand in various areas and where to use demand pricing.

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