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I had been waiting for this since posters last weekend had suggested to key on it; I suppose it has been previously posted , but doesn't turn up on Search under keyword "metro" or by title. Sorry if it's a double post, but I know a lot of us were interested.
1 posted on 09/20/2009 6:10:20 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: gusopol3

obama and his merry band of thugs and thieves cannot afford to have this information in the msm. It would debunk their lies to the American people that 9/12 was made up of fringe terrorists. God forbid that the truth should make it out there! But then, he is just following alinsky rule that says to “isolate”. If he can make people feel they might be alone in their belief that he is trying to destroy the US, it will be that many less “feet on the ground” that won’t be trying to stop him.


2 posted on 09/20/2009 6:17:42 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: gusopol3

Great post! Thanks!


3 posted on 09/20/2009 6:18:40 AM PDT by albie
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To: gusopol3
I know there were at least a million marchers last Saturday. Our group was by the pool, right in front of the National Botanical Garden. Around one o'clock or so, a guy came around announcing the our crowd reached 1.4 million. We all yelled and clapped.

From my vantage point, I watched in amazement as marchers streamed in to the area for hours!!!

5 posted on 09/20/2009 6:24:48 AM PDT by alice_in_bubbaland (Markets and Marxists Don't Mix! Audit the FED NOW!)
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To: gusopol3

I took the Metro at Ballston station. The platforms were packed with demonsrators headed to the March. When the train pulled into the station, it was packed with protestors, who cheered the people on the platform, when the doors opened. This was repeated at every station all the way to Metro Center. Only a few people got off. The Metro was really part of the demonstration.


6 posted on 09/20/2009 6:25:46 AM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: gusopol3

Great find. I had to laugh when I heard the lowball numbers for the rally. The metro had people packed in like sardene’s, I’ve got a picture I took when leaving. Never could get in a train. We finally made our way back out of the station and hailed a cab. A 10 minute, 11 dollar ride later we were back at the hotel.


7 posted on 09/20/2009 6:25:51 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: gusopol3

ping metro ridership 912


8 posted on 09/20/2009 6:25:52 AM PDT by TNoldman (Conservative Values FOREVER!)
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To: gusopol3

Great idea, but a word of caution: This assumes the metro folks were telling the truth about ridership numbers...


9 posted on 09/20/2009 6:27:04 AM PDT by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: gusopol3
I suspect that the majority of those who attended the inauguration were residents of Washington D.C. and its environs.

I don't think that would be true of the March.

This, of course, means that the Metro use for the Inauguration would be much higher than that for the March.

10 posted on 09/20/2009 6:27:58 AM PDT by Tribune7 (I am Joe Wilson!)
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To: gusopol3
A note: Having never used a subway (I'm from Omaha)I asked a metro worker to help me purchase the farecard. She told me that to exit the station one had to have a farecard with enough money on it. And even though one uses the farecard to enter the platform, the money isn't deducted until exiting. I would bet that is when the rider count is taken.

On 9/12 I rode the blue line to Federal Triangle, arriving about 9:15 am. There were so many in the station that the metro police/workers opened the turnstyles to get us out as quickly as possible so other trains could come in. We didn't use our farecards, so I'm betting we weren't counted.

11 posted on 09/20/2009 6:28:49 AM PDT by Vor Lady ("Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." JFK)
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To: gusopol3; GRRRRR
Washington Metro measures and releases its ridership numbers and these numbers have been used in the past to judge the size of major events in Washington, DC.

And that's only part of the story. I was one of many riders who jammed the Metro system on 9/12. When our train arrived at the Federal Plaza station (the nearest to the step off for ther march) the platform was still half full of riders from the previous train. Before we could make it up the escaltor yet another packed train was arriving. The big hold up was everyone having to scan their fare cards to get thru the exit turnstyles.

Finally, Metro employees opened the gates and let us stream through without scanning cards and without clicking the turnstyles. Thousands got through uncounted by Metro at just that one station alone.

13 posted on 09/20/2009 6:34:01 AM PDT by TheRightGuy (I want MY BAILOUT ... a billion or two should do!)
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To: gusopol3; GRRRRR
Washington Metro measures and releases its ridership numbers and these numbers have been used in the past to judge the size of major events in Washington, DC.

And that's only part of the story. I was one of many riders who jammed the Metro system on 9/12. When our train arrived at the Federal Plaza station (the nearest to the step off for ther march) the platform was still half full of riders from the previous train. Before we could make it up the escaltor yet another packed train was arriving. The big hold up was everyone having to scan their fare cards to get thru the exit turnstyles.

Finally, Metro employees opened the gates and let us stream through without scanning cards and without clicking the turnstyles. Thousands got through uncounted by Metro at just that one station alone.

15 posted on 09/20/2009 6:35:19 AM PDT by TheRightGuy (I want MY BAILOUT ... a billion or two should do!)
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To: gusopol3
Quite a good analysis but I suspect it overlooks an important factor: the number Metro trains available on Inauguration Day vs. the number available for the 912 Rally.

Now maybe they were the same but I doubt it. If the Metro was maxed out on Saturday 912 and there were less trains running than on Inauguration Day then the analysis will certainly underestimate the 912 crowd. OTOH, it does provide a good lower limit estimate. I think until we know if there were additional trains available on Inauguration Day and that the Metro was maxed out on Saturday 912 we really won't know if my objection is important or not. Hopefully someone can dig up that data.

18 posted on 09/20/2009 6:37:50 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: gusopol3

where is the source for this alleged fire department estimate. it sounds more like an internet rumor


22 posted on 09/20/2009 6:45:51 AM PDT by Always Right (Obama owes Joe Willson an apology!!!)
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To: gusopol3

You should send a copy to O’Reilly. I heard him say “70,000” again to correct Chris Wallace.


23 posted on 09/20/2009 6:45:59 AM PDT by Big_Harry ( Thank God I am an "Infidel"!)
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To: gusopol3
The difference is 235,096

Ok, remember that Metro is capturing the total number of rides here. So if that number is representative of people who took Metro to and from the rally, it needs to be cut in half to 117,548.

It also includes the full day's worth of rides. So of those who took Metro, how many stopped off somewhere either coming to or going from the rally? For example, if my family of four came in for the rally (which we didn't) using Metro, and stopped at the Court House Metro in Arlington to grab dinner at Ireland's Four Courts on the way back out, we'd account for 12 (not 4) of the 235,096 rides cited above.

I'd say that number is, as close to fairly as possible (the trending only looks at one prior year, 2008, rather than say the last 5-10 years ... 9/12 this year was a nice day, which will draw more people down to the Mall anyways. I don't remember what 9/12/2008 was like, but if it was rainy and cold the numbers for that date could be depressed), indicative of about 100,000 rally attendees who took Metro. Then add on busses, etc from there to increase the number of participants ...
24 posted on 09/20/2009 6:47:12 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: gusopol3

It’s, it’s, it’s like the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The completely objective, truth-dedicated MSM told us there were only 70,000 and yet so many rode the Metro. I guess each person there rode back and forth maybe 6 times and those that drove their cars, like the woman we met up with who had been raised in Northeast, and parked in her old neighborhood, must have ridden back and forth on Metro many timse when we weren’t with her and done so for no reason at all.


30 posted on 09/20/2009 7:01:45 AM PDT by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them or they more like we used to be?)
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To: gusopol3

This is direct, clear evidence that the press is lying to us. They were not merely ignoring the evidence but patently lying to our faces when they said “60,000 to 70,000” or the more generic “tens of thousands.”

But this story is “old news” now so they don’t need to mention anything further about it. Take comfort in the fact that we know how the history books will record the 9/12 protest, despite their nefarious efforts.

The upside, however, is that over a million people came to Washington, D.C., in an unorganized protest WITHOUT the media telling us about it! We did this on our own!

Same with the ACORN videos and Van Jones and (someday) the birth certificate thing. And if Glenn Beck really is the “targeting director” for this grassroots force, then the Apollo Alliance will be next down the chute.

Take heart in the fact that the alternative media works. Word does get out, so long as we’re allowed to keep our Internet access.


32 posted on 09/20/2009 7:03:12 AM PDT by DNME (All your rights end when the next "national emergency" begins!)
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To: gusopol3

Somebody tell Charles at Little Green Footballs. He seems to think that only a handful showed up on 9-12 and keeps beating the drum. I thought at one time LGF leaned to the right but it has really taken a left turn. Guess that explains why I was banned.


36 posted on 09/20/2009 7:11:27 AM PDT by engrpat (A village in Kenya is missing their idiot...lets send him back)
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To: gusopol3
It was a great crowd, the feeling I got being there was overwhelming. God Bless them all. PRay for our county.
38 posted on 09/20/2009 7:15:19 AM PDT by sweetiepiezer (I have a Pal in Sarah)
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To: gusopol3

Note this comment from the linked Heritage article:

Kenneth Happel, Vista, CA writes:

I was the medical coordinator for the event. I believe that there were at least a million people there and a million and a half would be my best bet.
.
I don’t know where the “official estimate” quoted as 60,000 comes from. The event permit, and Chief Lyles fire department resource allocation, was based upon 50,000 (because we couldn’t prove more beforehand)and that number of people was supposed to be contained in the central section of the west lawn between the sidewalks extending from the freedom and grant statues.
.
I counted the crowd entering Penn. Ave. to determine how many first aid team people were needed and where. I made my count at Freedom Plaza after the police radio had indicated that the front of the march had reached Capital Circle. I used the following method. We counted the number of people stretching across Penn. Ave. from curb to curb for a distance down the street of ten feet. That number was divided in half (assuming that there were variations in how tightly people were packed)and multiplied by the number of ten foot intervals from Freedom Park to Capitol Circle. At 8:00 the count was 200,000. I inserted a medical team at that point and when it reached Capitol Circle the whole avenue had filled again and I inserted my team. So at about 9:30 the total attendance from the march was, conservatively, about 400,000. The avenue continued to pumo in people fopr another two hours. So I estimate about 600,000 came through that route.
.
There was also a very large stream that filled the whole street from the train station to Capitol circle and people that came on the underground said that it was simply packed with people coming out at the protest site (both these flows were not part of the march).
.
The National Park Service published its estimating method in USA Today, when they provided an estimate for President Obama’s inaguration. That method estimates by filled area.
The west lawn (all three sections were filled solid with little space between people)the shoulders around the building and the area directly around the reflecting pool is 240,000 by the NPS estimating method. The mall from the reflecting pool to the cross street before the Washington Monument is 940,000 according to the NPS. The first section of the mall nearest the Washingon Monument was reserved for the NAACP’s Family event. Our folks, at the height of the event, stretched from the cross street before the NAACP event all the way to the relfecting pool and were packed. I would guess that its 4/5 of the 940,000 or 750,000 people together that’s a million. Then there was the area from first street to third street (third street goes to the train station). First street was so crowded the police had to clear it. The crowd also filled most of the area around and between the museums on each side, with the greatest density in the half of the mall nearest the reflecting pool. You could easily add another half million with these two areas.
.
That’s how I came to an estimate of one to one and a half million.
Under no possible stretch of the imagination or should I say contraction of the imagination were there only 60,000. To see crowd outline on the National Park Service estimator go to my facebook page “kenneth happel” and look at the photos.


39 posted on 09/20/2009 7:24:35 AM PDT by luckybogey
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