Guess Number of Metrorail Riders 1/20, Win a Prize!

Track Twenty-Nine is having a contest!

Whoever guesses closest to the actual number of trips taken on January 20, 2009 on the Washington Metrorail will win a commemorative Barack Obama SmarTrip card (pictured below). The card does NOT have any value preloaded, however it is usable on Washington area transit systems should you choose to load it with value.


Just to be clear. Metro's service on January 20th runs from 4am on Jan 20 until 2am on Jan 21. Rides taken between midnight and 2 am on Jan 21 are still counted as part of Jan 20th's ridership. So you are guessing the number of trips taken on rail between opening (around 4am on Jan 20) and closing (around 2am Jan 21) for the day of the Inauguration.

Now, not to be a downer or anything, but we need to lay out the ground rules.

Rules:

1. To enter a guess, comment in this post.
2. You must comment with a screen name (not anonymously).
3. If you don't have a blogger profile with an email link, you can include an email address in your comment.
4. If you don't want to do that, you may send me an email with your information, but you must FIRST post your estimate in this thread. Email guesses to: matt.tracktwentynine@gmail.com. The official record will be comments made here, NOT emails to me.
5. You may submit only one guess.
6. The polls will close at 11:59pm (Eastern time) on January 19. Guesses submitted after that time will not be considered.
7. The winner will be decided based on WMATA's official press release, which usually happens within a week after the event.
8. The winner will be the person whose guess is closest (higher or lower) to the actual number of trips taken.
9. In the case of a tie (e.g. someone is 20 high and someone is 20 low), the winner will be the person whose comment was submitted earliest. If two people guess the same (winning) number, the person who submitted their guess first will be the winner.
10. In addition to the Commemorative SmartTrip Card, I will pay postage to anywhere within the United States.
11. The winner will be contacted at the email address submitted in conjunction with the guess. At that time, the winner can reply by email with a mailing address.
12. If the winner does not reply to his or her congratulatory email within one week, the Commemorative Card will be sent to the runner up, and so on.
13. In case of any dispute, my judgment shall be final.

Good luck. Once you've submitted your guess, tell your friends!