Where do AP, ABC, NBC, CNN, and FOX get their DC912 crowd estimates from?

bvw | 13 September 2009 | bvw

[Eva]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the media was forbidden from putting helicopters in the air over DC. They probably called it part of the Coast Guard defense drill that they were running on Friday. You know, clearing the air space over DC?

[ak267]

Dr Deth,

My sister attended (she works in DC and has seen her fair share of rallies). She thinks it’s several hunderd thousand who attended.

Nay sayers and trolls are trying to downgrade the numbers for obvious reasons.

[NoGrayZone]

"You are wrong."

I ditto that response.

[KevinB]

Nay sayers and trolls are trying to downgrade the numbers for obvious reasons.

Well gee, Newb, I have been a member of this board eight years longer than you and am one of those disputing the huge numbers. I also took time out of my schedule to actually participate in the rally. I guess I'm one of the trolls to whom you refer.

[NoGrayZone]

"If the National Mall is densely packed from Third Street to the Washington Monument, and if the area from the monument to the Lincoln Memorial has an average density, the space could contain 1.5 million people, Barna said. Average density is one person per 5 square feet. A tightly packed crowd has a density of one person per 2.5 square feet..."

I was there. Most of the space was tightly packed. We had to constantly move out of the way to allow people to move, step over people who were sitting on the ground (standing for 6 hours hurts the feet, lol). We were constantly bumping into each other.

Another thing we all had to be very mindful of.....our signs knocking people in the head. Anytime you wanted to move, even "shift", you had to watch your sign didn't bump into someone's head.

[FreedomPoster]

Breitbart has a great video clip of a CNN reporterette getting chanted at. Things like “TELL! THE! TRUTH!”. It was excellent!

[jdub]

Nope. the number of official busses on the 912 website was 450. Given that it took me 5 tries to find one with a seat, and that we had 5 left behind who were hoping for a cancellation, I assume most if not all were full. these busses hold 45 or so. Thats around 220,000. add those that drove, flew (folks in our group talked to some who had flown from AK and HI)and at a minimum there were 250K.

We weren't allowed on the mall because we didn't have a permit. Thats why Penn Ave was backed up so far. They made us start the march early because Freedom Plaza was overfilled.

[Dr.Deth]

Well gee, Newb, I have been a member of this board eight years longer than you

Fail.

To extrapolate your argument: I've been here longer than you, and was also at the rally. So I'm right and you're wrong. Right n00b?

Seriously, ask yourself: How many people do they get into Times Square for New Years Eve? The logistics are not dissimilar. I'm just wondering how you saw what you saw and came to the conclusion you did. I figured a couple hundred K when I was on the ground and didn't have any idea of what the overheads looked like. When I saw the overheads, I felt, yeah, that's what it seemed like, a couple hundred K.

[KevinB]

Here's a very helpful article on this subject.

I got off the metro at the Smithsonian station and walked down the mall to the capitol at around 11:30 - 12:00. The public access area shown on the schematic was hosting some black families event, had a bunch of tents set up and was totally unrelated to the rally. The rectangular area shown in the ticketed area on the schematic was sparsely populated. The trapezoidal area next to the pool was fairly heavily populated, though people were not shoulder to shoulder and it was not too difficult to walk around in that area. The area in front of the capitol was densely packed and it was very difficult to walk around.

According to the article if the area from the capitol to the Washington Monument was densely packed and the area from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial had an average density the area could contain 1.5m people.

Based on this, I will concede that there were likely between 150k and 200k people there, but clearly nowhere close to the 1.5m or 2m some people have estimated.

[spacejunkie01]

I was at the rally. HUGE crowds. Easily 1.5m. I ran into Mike Taibbi of CBS news and I asked him, ‘so, you guys projecting 2-300 people, max?’ LOLOL He laughed and said ‘yeah, you and everybody else busting my chops’.

He really wouldn’t go on to guesstimate, much as I tried to get him to.

[KevinB]

I made no argument at all. He called me - someone who has been a member here for nine years, consistently donates to the site and actually took the time to participate in the rally - a troll because I do not agree with what his sister told him. Epic fail!

[KevinB]

Easily 1.5m.

Take a look at post 49.

[spacejunkie01]

Sorry...you’re delusional. On BOTH of your weak estimates.

[Dr.Deth]

That gibes with what I saw at the Capitol and around the pool, that area typically holds 150-200K. Plus there was some overflow back to the mall up to where the other event fences off. At that time Pennsylvania was still crowded, though, and the crowd was still gathering of people coming directly up the Mall. Plus people that just wanted to march were exiting the site as well. That’s where I get my 200-300K guesstimate.

I think we just had to reconcile what we saw, with what it translates to, numberwise.

[bvw]

Michelle Malkin has a link to the time lapse from a rooftop of a high rise at the start of the march, just east of the WH.

[bvw]

Anecdotal reports say the DC Police make the 912 to be bigger than the 1-20-09.

[Vendome]

Okay, so the distance from 14th street to the Capital is 1.4 miles. Just using a rough calculation to allow for spacing, that means there are 20 acres between 14th and the Capital.

If 20,000 people can fit into an acre for say the 4th of July and they are sitting still, then we can safely say that there were 15,000 people walking, per acre, up Pennsylvania Avenue.

so 20 acres x 15,000 people= 300,000 in a single snapshot at the apogee of full participation.

In a crowd it would take 20+ minutes to walk 1.4 miles. In the video the walk begins at the 9 second mark with the apogee beginning at the 21 second mark and is reduced or ended at the 34 second mark, with the video completing at the 38 second mark.

So could some smart person who know how to use an abacus tell me how many people walked up Pennsylvania avenue using the above numbers.

I know that 300,000 did at the apogee but how many followed?

 

 

 

 

 

   

Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoPud1TeubM

[mware]

I dont know if the media mentioned it but people were in line to get to DC via the metro and the lines were very long.

One freeper mentioned that they were in the line and finally gave up and took a taxi into town to get there before the event was over.

I began marching around 10:30 near the beginning of the parade. Matter of fact I was standing right next to dick armey for most of the march.

When I left my spot (around 2:30) people were still coming into the mall area.

[mware]

I saw the same helicopter. I though it might be Marine One.

In any case I did see the guy standing on the steps of the Capitol that got some of the best photos of the crowd. There is a thread up showing those photos.