Where Do You Park 10,000 Charter Buses?

[babylonsister]

Where Do You Park 10,000 Charter Buses?
Getting Riders to Swearing-In A Trickier Puzzle for Planners

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 9, 2008; Page A01


Transportation planners for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration say an estimated 10,000 charter buses will arrive in the Washington area for the event, posing what they say would be an unprecedented logistical nightmare.

The estimate is based on bookings, queries from operators and projections of crowd size from D.C. officials, according to Eron Shosteck, a senior vice president of the American Bus Association, which represents 800 independent bus operators. That number does not include smaller buses or passenger vans organized by churches and other groups.

The sheer size of the charter bus contingent, carrying as many as a half-million people, has an enormous cascading effect on the rest of transportation planning. Widespread street closures downtown will prevent charter buses from dropping passengers off at events, so officials need to figure out where buses will park. The parking locations, in turn, will affect where and how many people squeeze on to packed Metro trains.

City officials say the number of buses could exceed 10,000. More than 5,000 passenger carrier companies with more than 23,000 vehicles have interstate operating authority within 1,000 miles of Washington, from Maine to east of the Mississippi to Miami, according to City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. The city's call center staff began contacting hundreds of bus companies over the weekend to ask about bookings, he said.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803650.html

[AngryAmish]

1. The 10,000 charter bus parking lot?

[YOY]

2. With my luck in front of my house.

Union Station will take a crapload of them I imagine.

[ksoze]

3. Abandoned Car Dealer Lots?

Should be many available.

[ksoze]

4. United States Naval Observatory

Cheney is never home - hiding at the undisclosed bunker.

[brendan120678]

10. But it's going to become Biden's home soon...

Don't know if he'd much appreciate thousands of busses digging up the lawn :)

[SheilaT]

5. What football stadium do

they have now in DC? And does the Metro run out there?

[Shakespeare]

6. RFK, which is also next to a national guard installment.

Lots of parking there, and the orange/blue line's RFK stop is right there, too. It'll almost certainly be one of the staging areas for buses.

[SheilaT]

8. I thought RFK had been replaced.

But yeah, that would be an ideal staging area for busses.

[brendan120678]

11. It's been "replaced" in the sense that...

neither the Redskins or Nationals play there anymore.

The stadium is still there, and they still have an MLS team, I believe.

[tabbycat31]

12. what about where the Nationals and Redskins play?

[onenote]

16. As the article indicates, the issue isn't really parking, its getting people into town

The Redskins play in Landover MD, which isn't that close, but does have a metro stop relatively nearby. And the Nationals stadium is in town, not far from capitol hill; not a lot of parking, however. I'm sure they'll use it as well. It seems to me that they should be able to find space for a large number of these buses. But, as the badly headlined article indicates, the issue isn't parking, its getting people from where the buses park to where the people need/want to be.

[Virginia Dare]

9. The Pentagon parking lot would hold quite a few as well..

I would imagine. Sounds like a royal charlie foxtrot brewing in D.C.

[NV Whino]

7. I have this vision of the eastern half of the country tilting into the Atlantic

and all of us left on the western half leaning out over the continental shelf to try to right it.

[ieoeja]

13. Right it? Did you say *RIGHT* it?

Freeper!!!!!

[NV Whino]

17. Ooops, my bad.

I meant correct it.

[Zavulon]

14. The actual number is close to twice that amount.

I was in the Wilson Building today and heard it discussed. The most recent estimates by those responsible for knowing are far closer to 18,000.

[Cha]

15. I wanted to go but have

since to decided to stay home and give my place to some other excited for Democracy supporter:fistbump::patriot:

C-Span and my 'puter will be just fine, although I do admire those who will be there for us.:patriot::bounce::patriot:

[Fleshdancer]

18. Park 'em at various train stations

:shrug: