The 59 bus runs from the Village Center to our street
Montgomery Village has no station of its own, but it has something almost as good for a repair day: a seven-day Ride On route that starts at the Village Center and ends at Rockville station by way of Stonestreet Avenue. Drive down, hand over the keys, ride back.
Three roads down, one bus up
Montgomery Village Avenue is MD-124. South out of the Village it crosses MD-355 and meets I-270 at a partial interchange. Note there is no ramp from northbound 124 onto southbound 270, so drivers either take MD-355 (Frederick Road, which becomes Hungerford Drive and passes Rockville station a block from the shop) or use the Watkins Mill Road interchange, opened in 2020, to get onto I-270 south and leave at Exit 6 for downtown Rockville. Center to center it is about nine miles, a quarter of an hour outside rush hour.
Coming back without the car: Ride On Route 59 runs seven days a week between Montgomery Village Center and Rockville station, stopping at the Lakeforest Transit Center, Frederick Avenue, Shady Grove station, Gude Drive and Stonestreet Avenue. Route 64 runs daily to Shady Grove, where Rockville is one Red Line stop inbound. Ride On is currently fare-free; Metro is not. There is no MARC stop in the Village. Gaithersburg and Metropolitan Grove are nearest, and the line stops at Rockville too, weekdays only.
A 1960s planned village that still drives to work
Montgomery Village is a 2,435-acre planned community created in 1965 (Kettler Brothers broke ground in 1966 and the first families moved into Goshenside in 1967), sitting east of I-270 and north of I-370 beside Gaithersburg, with Montgomery Village Avenue as its main street and Lake Whetstone beside it at the Gaithersburg end. About 34,900 people lived in the census-designated place at the 2020 count. It is governed by a homeowners’ foundation, not a city hall, and most of its homes date from the late 1960s and 1970s.
The commute
Recent Census estimates: six in ten workers drive alone, one in nine carpools, and the typical household has two cars with a commute over half an hour. The cars earn their keep on 355 and 270.
The usual jobs
Brakes from the 270 merge, alignment after the winter potholes on Montgomery Village Avenue, batteries, and check-engine lights on a second car nearing twenty years old. All services.
The old mall site
Lakeforest Mall at the foot of Montgomery Village Avenue closed in 2023 and has since been demolished for redevelopment; the Lakeforest Transit Center still works as the Ride On hub on the way to Rockville, though its location is set to move with the project.
Everything official is within seven miles
Montgomery Village drivers have short inspection errands. The nearer of the state’s two full-service VEIP stations in the county is at 15910 Chieftain Ave in Derwood, about six miles southeast off Redland Road; the full-service MVA branch at 15 Metropolitan Grove Rd in Gaithersburg, with its self-service emissions kiosk, is about three miles southwest, straight out Watkins Mill Road. The Maryland Safety Inspection that a used car needs before it can be sold or titled is done at licensed private stations, and that is the one Karnon Automotive does, nine miles down the road, with repairs and re-inspection under one roof and the result sent to the MVA electronically. Call (301) 444-4410 to book, or walk in during business hours and wait your turn; English, Spanish and French spoken.