We love the Hollywood Bowl but, unfortunately, the parking situation on site is a real nightmare. And if you still insist on driving, it’s only about to get worse—though your transit-friendly alternatives may get a bit better.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the venue will no longer allow concertgoers to park in lots B (the large one on the Bowl side of Highland Avenue) and C (the small triangular one next to the 101). Those areas will instead be turned into transportation hubs to “streamline rideshare, bus and shuttle traffic.”
Even more specifically, lot B will now be dedicated to shuttle pickup and drop-off and ADA accessible parking while lot C will be reserved for rideshares. According to Deadline, the changes will end up cutting more than 300 parking spaces.
Though you may be dreading how this will impact the already-dire stacked parking situation, officials believe that the rearrangement will actually alleviate some of the congestion in the surrounding area.
“People don’t like getting to the Bowl, but everyone loves the Bowl,” L.A. Phil’s interim CEO Daniel Song said to the Los Angeles Times. “So if there’s a barrier [for] someone to be able to come to the Bowl, we’re going to try to fix that and we’re going to try to mitigate that as best as we can. We wouldn’t be rolling this out unless we were confident that long-term, long-game, this is going to be an improvement of everyone that comes to the Hollywood Bowl.”
For what it’s worth, we’ve always advocated against driving to the Bowl. You can opt to take one of the many Bowl shuttles around the county, particularly the one from the L.A. Zoo. And you can either park at or take the Metro to Ovation Hollywood, and then from there take the shuttle or walk about three quarters of a mile to the venue.
Shows are already sporadically underway at the Bowl, including this week’s Jimmy Buffett tribute, while the proper summer season kicks off in June—so get ready for social media to be flooded with everyone’s take on the new parking arrangements.