Women's March Could Be Bigger Than Trump Inauguration

6 times as many buses are seeking permits
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2017 3:35 AM CST
Women's March Could Be Bigger Than Trump Inauguration
The West Front of the Capitol is seen as work continues on the stand for the inauguration of Donald Trump.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The inauguration of a new president is traditionally one of the biggest events in years in Washington—but if bus parking figures are anything to go by, Donald Trump's inauguration may not even be the city's biggest event next week. DC Council member Charles Allen tells NBC4 that only around 200 requests to park charter buses at RFK Stadium, the main such parking facility, have been made for Jan. 20, but there have been at least 1,200 requests for Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration, when the Women's March on Washington will be held. On the march's Facebook page, 186,000 people say they're going, with another 253,000 "interested."

Buses will be able to park outside RFK, so the Trump numbers could be much larger than the RFK figures suggest, the Washington Post notes, though it appears unlikely that there will be anything close to the 3,000 buses that sought parking permits on the day of President Obama's 2009 inauguration. Chris Geldart, director of the DC Department of Homeland Security, tells NBC4 that he asked Homeland Security and the Secret Service to count the women's march as an inaugural event for security purposes, but the request was denied. (The women's march was the brainchild of a grandmother in Hawaii.)

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