From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist@KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Parking for Capclave on Friday
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:57:06 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist@KeithLynch.net>

Neil Ottenstein <nottenst@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Last year I took Metro in to Capclave on Friday and it took about an
> hour to get in.  I drove in on Saturday and Sunday, parking at the
> Twinbrook Metro.  I was wondering what people remembered about how
> successful they were in finding parking on Friday night last year.

I don't know anything about parking, but Metro's website has:

  Metrorail customers traveling between the Friendship Heights and
  Medical Center Metrorail stations should add 20 minutes of travel
  time because personnel will replace fasteners that stabilize the
  rail tracks.  Trains will share one track between these locations
  from 10 p.m., Friday, October 17, to closing (midnight), Sunday,
  October 19.

That is directly between Twinbrook and nearly every other Metro
station.  By "20 minutes" they mean the average delay.  It could be
zero, it could be 40 minutes.  So the round trip delay could be 80
minutes in addition to the already slow weekend service.  Even longer
if you're transferring from the Orange Line, which has scheduled
delays of its own.

Of course Metro gives at most two days notice of such scheduled
delays, so there's no way to schedule events for weekends they don't
plan to have delays.

You could just stay in the hotel, if you're rich.  But if you could
afford that, you could certainly afford even the most expensive
parking lots.

As I previously mentioned, I will not be attending Capclave this year
or next year, or probably ever again.  My next cons will be Philcon,
Ravencon, and Balticon.