Because it’s early and many of us are still working on the first cup of coffee ;-) , 1.544 million “trips” = 772,000 round trips = 772,000 *people*.
I’ve lived in the DC area for many years and so in response to assertions in the Post article:
1) The overwhelming bulk of the attendees came and went on Metro, because driving was discouraged and a known nightmare for weeks around here. Let’s (very generouosly) give 100,000 more attendees who walked, came in buses and limos and taxis, and yes drove despite the warnings. But 100,000 tops.
2) There were not 800,000 people hiding at 11:19 AM in the museums on the Mall, or in the shadows of buildings, or lingering on the parade route (Pennsylvania Ave. which is clearly visible just north of the Mall in the sat photo), or in the street underpasses and thus invisible in the satellite. Nope, not 800,000, not 500,000, not 200,000, and probably not even 25,000. By 11:19 AM everyone was either in transit to (and visible on the street), or standing on the Mall. To assert otherwise is just laughable. There are not hundreds of thousands of people hidden within or outside the satellite photo. What you see is what you get.
There are other interesting details on the DC Metro web site and in my post on this attendance topic the other day:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2168433/posts?page=13#13
Including the following table, which I do not think was surpassed on Tuesday:
Metrorail’s Top 20 Weekday Ridership Days
Date Ridership Event
1 01-20-09 973,285 (as of 7 p.m.) Obama Inauguration
2 01-19-09 866,681 Obama inaugural events
3 07-11-08 854,638 Baseball/Women of Faith Conference
4 06-09-04 850,636 Reagan State Funeral
5 06-25-08 846,388 Smithsonian Folklife Festival/Baseball
6 07-10-08 844,530 Baseball
7 07-08-08 835,072 Baseball/Basketball
8 07-02-08 834,956 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
9 04-03-07 831,508 Cherry Blossoms/Baseball
10 06-24-08 831,464 Baseball/Basketball
11 06-20-08 829,998 Baseball/Basketball
12 04-24-08 828,973 Baseball/Basketball
13 04-17-08 828,418 Pope Visit/Soccer
14 04-11-08 828,132 Baseball/Cherry Blossoms
15 06-27-08 825,862 Smithsonian Folklife Festival/Baseball
16 06-18-08 823,516 No Event
17 07-01-08 822,931 No Event
18 04-10-06 821,283 Immigrant Rights Rally
19 06-19-08 819,979 No Event
20 06-26-08 819,722 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
It also is interesting that Metro has previously provided numbers in terms of “ridership” (aka “people”) but this time chooses to discuss “trips”, not mentioning that:
2 “trips” = 1 “round trip” = 1 “rider/person/attendee”.
1.544 million “trips” = 772,000 “riders”
There’s a whole lotta’ propaganda and fudging going on today.