Presidential Inauguration Notes

BUNDLE UP: Meteorologists are predicting highs in the upper 20s or low 30s and cloudy skies through Tuesday.

GET OUT THOSE WALKING SHOES: Much of central Washington will be closed to traffic from 3 p.m. on Monday until 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Walking, biking and public transit will be the only ways to get around, officials say. Most inbound lanes on bridges will be closed. Drivers can expect heavy congestion on major roads. Most parking near the National Mall will be closed off.

Planners originally anticipated up to 10,000 private charter buses carrying 500,000 participants to the inaugural events, but as of Wednesday afternoon only 2,615 buses had been registered with the city for parking. Various sections of the city will be reserved for bus parking, including Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

OR THOSE BICYCLE HELMETS: The Washington Area Bicyclist Association will provide free valet bicycle parking on Inauguration Day for up to 2,000 bikes in two lots: one on the south side of the Jefferson Memorial and the other on 16th Street NW, between I and K Streets.

OBAMA’S ON THE (METRO) TICKET: Washington’s subway system, the Metro, has extended its hours of operation and is bracing for some of the heaviest crowds since it opened in 1976. It will be open from 7 a.m. on Saturday to 3 a.m. on Sunday, from 7 a.m. to midnight on Sunday, and from 5 a.m. on Monday to 2 a.m. on Tuesday. On Inauguration Day it will open at 4 a.m. and stay open until 2 a.m. on Wednesday.

From Friday through Wednesday, the Metro will run additional buses on the B30 route, which connects the Greenbelt, Md., terminus on the Green Line to the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and on the 5A route, which links the L’Enfant Plaza transit hub with the Rosslyn, Va., station on the Blue and Orange Lines, and Dulles International Airport. The capital’s closest airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, has a station on Metro’s Yellow and Blue lines.

Subway fares vary by time of day and distance traveled. Metro is selling commemorative fare cards, one-day passes and SmarTrip cards (which use a radio-frequency identification chip and are tapped rather than inserted) bearing Mr. Obama’s image.

Two of the subway stations closest to the Capitol — the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter station on the Green and Yellow Lines and the Smithsonian station on the Blue and Orange Lines — will be closed all day on Tuesday.

And because of their proximity to inaugural balls, the Mount Vernon Square-Seventh Street-Convention Center station on the Yellow and Green Lines will close at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, and the Judiciary Square station on the Red Line will close at 4 p.m.

PILLOWS AT A PREMIUM: Pretty much all of Washington’s 29,000 hotel rooms are booked, not to mention hotels in suburban Maryland and Virginia and even parts of West Virginia. But initial projections that apartment owners and renters would be able to rent out their apartments for exorbitant amounts — more than $1,500 a night — largely did not come to pass. Some short-term rentals are still available through Craigslist, but most are far from the Capitol and run at least $300 a night.

WHAT NOT TO PACK: Not only are weapons prohibited from the inauguration, the inaugural parade route and the 10 official inaugural balls, but also items like umbrellas, aerosol sprays, signs, coolers, thermal containers, backpacks, duffel bags, laser pointers and alcoholic beverages.
“Surrendered items will not be returned, nor available for pick-up,” the Secret Service has warned.

SOLD OUT: The 240,000 tickets for the hourlong swearing-in ceremony are long gone, but scalping has been widely reported. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has introduced legislation to make the sale and counterfeiting of inaugural tickets a federal crime. The Web sites eBay and StubHub.com have banned sales of inaugural tickets.

Ticket holders should arrive at least three hours before the ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m.
More than 13,000 people — and 90 music, cultural and community groups, along with members of the Armed Forces — are to take part in the inaugural parade, which will start at 2:30 p.m.

BATHROOM BRIGADES: Workers will set up 5,000 portable toilets throughout the National Mall and along the parade route of Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Generally, National Park Service regulations call for one portable toilet for every 300 people, which would suggest that the officials are expecting 1.5 million people for the inauguration.

Inauguration officials have warned parents that ticket holders for the ceremony will not be allowed to bring strollers and that there will be no place to change diapers.

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: City officials warn that most hospitals will not provide nonemergency care on Monday and Tuesday. The city plans to set up nearly 50 medical stations around the inaugural events, with health care workers from federal and city agencies.

Some hospitals are urging people to fill out a medical history card, including emergency contact information, and to carry it with them.

SUSTENANCE: Last month Washington’s City Council passed emergency legislation allowing restaurants, taverns, hotels, nightclubs and other retailers with licenses to sell alcohol on the premises to serve drinks until 4 a.m., and to stay open 24 hours a day from Jan. 17 to 21.

There will be some 716 street vendors selling food downtown and near the National Mall. The city will also set up more than 1,000 overflow vending locations, near major transportation hubs.

TEXT, DON’T CALL: Wireless carriers are expecting heavy usage during the inauguration. To limit the number of delayed messages and dropped calls, text messages, which use less bandwidth than voice calls, are recommended. Visitors are also urged to save, and delay sending, videos and photos until well after the ceremonies have ended, and to establish rendezvous points with friends in case signals fail. And all are advised to carry paper maps in case G.P.S. devices and software aren’t working.

MY PARENTS WENT TO THE INAUGURATION, AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS T-SHIRT: The official Presidential Inaugural Committee store, at 625 E Street NW, will close after Wednesday. From Saturday through Wednesday, the store’s hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.