There has been much debate over how many people actually attended the 9-12 March on DC. The mainstream media has been stating an estimate of 60,000 to 70,000, which is just plan ridiculous. We now have a completely objective source of information. The Washington, DC Metro mass transit subway system releases its ridership numbers and these numbers have been used in the past to judge the size of major events in Washington, DC.
Saturday September 12, 2009 the metro had 437,624 riders. Source
Saturday after Laboy Day in 2008 (The equivalent Saturday last year) the metro had 202,528 riders. Source
The difference is, 235,096.
Without even counting all the people that used chartered buses and carpools, the theory that only 60,000 to 70,000 people attended is off by roughly 335%.
This is an unbiased factual comparison and is hard to ignore, but I’m sure the mainstream media will. It’s clear that there were at least hundreds of thousands people marching and I was proud to be one of them.
Read the full article at The Heritage Foundation
Zac Moilanen has done some extensive work in estimating the number of people at the 912 March. The number he estimated is 1,782,760 and his work seems very accurate. View how he came up with 1,782,760 in attendance at the 912 march here.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:27 am
The saturday before 9/12, 300,000. The saturday before that, 300,000. The saturday before that: 300,000. The saturday before that: 340,000. 9/12: 437,000. So thats a little over 100,000 more than usual. All due to 9/12 rally? No, there was another big event going on at the mall at the same time that had thousands of attendees. Experts at crowd-measurement put the figure around 75,000. The fire department used a number near that too. It is clear that there were a lot of people there, maybe even 100,000, but its silly to go claiming as many as 1.7 million.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:07 am
You’re just plan wrong Ian. You got to understand there were hundreds of chartered busses. The 912dc.org site has almost 200 chartered buses listed, but around 500 buses showed up. Plus people also carpooled. It’s safe to say there we’re hundreds of thousands of people there.
View the link below, it will prove you wrong.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19743935/The-Real-Number-of-Protesters-Zac-Moilanen
September 21st, 2009 at 10:16 am
I read that whole document before making the first comment. Its filled with speculation, assumptions, and otherwise uncredible statements, and written by someone with no experience at all in estimating a crowd size.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams
September 21st, 2009 at 10:30 am
And what experience do you have in estimating a crowd size?
You’re right and so is John Adams. The fact is there were hundreds of thousands of people there.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:04 am
I don’t have any, thats why I cited those who do.