Saturday, January 10, 2009

Surviving the Inaugural

For those who are going to give it a shot - here's some help in surviving the inaugural. There is a nice pdf map showing the routes & entry points here. Among the bits shown on the map are "vendor locations" - the whole vendor thing has got local folks in an uproar. Instead of letting the guys and gals who hold down these spots day after day rain or heat the rest of the year, spots were put up for lottery, allowing folks from out of town just here to make a quick buck to compete with locals for those spots. Ah well, DC locals usually don't come out that well when the city is turned into a national spotlight.

Schedule as of today - January 20th
  • 4 a.m. -- Metro opens (at rush-hour service and fare levels).
  • 5 a.m. -- Monday extended alcohol service for bars and nightclubs ends; they can remain open 24 hours through Jan. 21.
  • 8 a.m. -- Security gates open for ticketed guests
  • 9 a.m. -- Ceremony gates open.
  • 10 a.m. -- Musical prelude.
  • Noon -- Ceremony ends, followed by the inaugural address, luncheon, departure of President Bush (CHEERS!!!!) and parade.
  • 7 p.m. -- Rush-hour Metro service levels end.
  • 2 a.m. -- Metro closes.
  • 5 a.m. -- Tuesday extended alcohol service for bars and nightclubs ends.
Smithsonian and Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter metros will be closed all day on the 20th. The rest of the system is going to be full, full, full. Metro opens at 4 a.m. on Jan. 20, operating at rush hour service levels (and corresponding fares) until 7 p.m. It will close at 2 a.m. on Jan. 21. Metro has a spot to sign up for transportation alerts during the inauguration here.

Street and bridge closings:

Main Roads and Bridges on Jan. 20, 4 a.m.-7 p.m.
-- 14th Street Bridge restricted to Buses and Authorized Vehicles Only.
-- Roosevelt Bridge restricted to Buses and Authorized Vehicles Only.
-- Memorial Bridge restricted to Pedestrians and Emergency Vehicles Only.
-- Key Bridge restricted to Mass Transit Only.
-- Chain Bridge restricted to Authorized Vehicles and Mass Transit Only, no charter buses.
-- South Capitol Street Bridge restricted to Buses and Authorized Vehicles Only.
-- Southeast/Southwest Freeway restricted to Emergency Vehicles Only.
-- Rock Creek Parkway open to traffic from Beach Drive to Virginia Avenue NW. (Holiday traffic schedule in effect throughout the park.)
-- Clara Barton Parkway will have two-way traffic all day.
-- 11th Street Bridges restricted to Buses and Authorized Vehicles Only.
-- Sousa Bridge open to all traffic from east of the river to a security checkpoint in Capitol Hill.
-- Barney Circle closed to all vehicles.
-- East Capitol Street open to all traffic, but roadways around RFK will be filled
with tour buses.
-- Benning Road open to all traffic.
-- New York Avenue open to all traffic.
-- 3rd Street Tunnel closed to all vehicular traffic and restricted to pedestrian use
only.

Virginia's representatives are bitching and moaning about the bridge closings. I'll try and feel sorry for them later.

Street closings - oh let's face it, there are going to be so many of them, there's not enough room to start listing them here. Basically anything south of K street; and anything between Foggy Bottom and a few streets east of the Capitol are going to be closed or hard to get to.

If you're going to the swearing in at the Capitol, or just about any other event, in fact if you're just going to be wandering around - be prepared for stops / search / confiscation if you're carrying laser pointers, coolers, backpacks or bags, glass containers or camera bags (cameras ok, camera bags, not so much). Adding to the fun is that different things are prohibited in different areas. What might be ok along the route isn't ok on Capitol grounds and so on.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association plans to provide free bike valet parking sites north and south of the mall on Inauguration Day. Two locations are known for sure at this point -16th St NW just south of K street, and one in the south side parking lot of the Jefferson Memorial. The bike valet service is going to be operating from 7am-5pm. Check back here for updates.

Oh yeah, and have fun :). It will be a glorious day.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home







Free Web Counter
hit Counter