Commuting to the Obama inauguration
 

Anyone up for it? You wont be able to get there by car. Just metro and tits going to be full. The bicycles will get there quick.

Post here if you are interested.

I would not be surprised if the secret service made trouble about you locking the bikes up near
the crowd for fear of pipe bombs. Remember- this event will probably have the highest security
ever for a presidential appearance.

Just how I like 'em.:roflmao2:

I think ill lock my bike in arlington and just walk to the event. Its not that far.

From VA, I think the bike/ped lanes on the bridges will be difficult when the event is over. They will be overloaded with walkers. Unless you want to kamikaze it on the actual bridges, which should be a slow crawl w/cars.

I will be watching from my office window.

I'm a few states away, but I were in town, sure.

What exactly constitutes full tits? C< ?

I'll walk the three blocks to get down there if I decide to go watch.

I'm up for it. Where it's at??:)

It should be on the west steps of the Capitol, where it faces the Mall. Walk as close as you can get and you can see him if you bring a telescope. ;)

Oh yeah -- here in DC, not down in Tallahassee.. :D

While I won't be going to his inauguration, read what you wrote, carefully.:roflmao2:

I rode to an Obama rally in East Lansing and parked my bike about 25 feet from the gate. There were 20,000 people there and probably more than 1000 bikes. The security was less intrusive than at a Clinton rally in the same location in 1992.

That was a rally for a presidential candidate. Not an inauguration for the next POTUS. This is kind of a bigger deal.

Generally bike is the best way to get to any kind of big event downtown. It may still be for the inaugural, although this will be an event unlike any before. The current talk is 4 million people, which would be at least three times bigger than any event in the city's history. If that's the case, you probably won't be able to get within a mile of the Capitol on a bike. Be prepared to walk. There is virtually no bike parking on the Mall, so I would bring a cable so you can lock to something non-traditional.

That said, I think every other mode of transportation is going to be far worse. They're urging people to take the subway, but the all-time one-day ridership record for the subway is about 850,000. They're not going to allow parking anywhere near the Mall.

I'll be biking down there, wouldn't miss it for the world.

If that 4 mil number is right, they're going to have to set up crowd control going into the stations. That's insane.

Wonder how many people will be wandering around my neighborhood; I'm a block from the Hart building.

I live about 15 miles away and will avoid the city like the plague on that day.

jan DC? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Should be a great time, im bringing a camera just to take pics of the people. I wont get close to obama, but it should be awesome to see that many people in one place. We will see.

I'm planning on staying the hell away from DC/Arlington the entire month of January. Maybe it's just me, but crowds of 4 million people are things I generally try to avoid, not seek out.

A week ago NBC did a piece on how all the hotels/motels are allready booked up.
You could probably ask for gold in exchange for renting out your house:)

Go for it. Ride as close as you can, then park the bike in the best place you can find. This is going to be a unique event, and you cannot predict or plan how it's going to go; so wing it.

I used to live in DC. I was 15 when, one inauguration day, my father said, hey, why don't we go down there? It was a warm day, and the ceremony had already begun, but we figured, what the hey? Drove down and parked somewhere on North Capital, near the GPO, and walked from there. Found ourselves a spot to stand on Constitution Avenue, and just a few minutes later Jimmy Carter came by, on foot, waving and smiling. Definitely the proudest day of my life until that point!

My wife and I are considering leaving over the inauguration period. First, I don't do the mall when major events are on. Its just pointless. And if there are four million on the mall, roughly half will be tourists. That being the case, there is simply no point being in the metro area. My enthusiasm for the Obama presidency simply does not rise to the level that justifies that sort of inconvenience and hassle.

My wife suggested that we rent out our posh Old Town townhouse to some of the revelers. But the thought of returning home to a looted house heavy with pot smoke and littered with prophylactics just doesn't appeal to me.

-Old Army

no way in H.E. double hockey sticks or on God's green earth am I going to the city on that day. The Custis and Mount Vernon is going to be packed with walkers not paying attention.

People are going to be like sardines walking around.

I always bike to the river for the 4th and bike back because on big event days that is the best but this is just going to be too much for me. I think I will go to whole foods that day and get some salmon to do the winter grilling...

I've heard of townhouses renting for $10K for the week, so it's got to be tempting. Folks with that kind of scratch might have grown out of the worst of those sorts of shenanigans.

true. You'll come home to Sauvingnon Blanc stains on the carpet, and the stench of fine cigars.
But no prophylactics. They don't do that anymore.