"On the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the U.S. Parks Service estimated that 1.8 million people crowded into the blocks around the U.S. capitol.

Tight security for the new president failed to translate into good, safe transit planning for the human traffic jam that came to celebrate.

Some 10,000 people who had tickets for the inauguration were stuck in a tunnel under the National Mall. But I witnessed other breakdowns of the transportation planning in the hours after the inauguration.

These deserve scrutiny as Washington, D.C. and federal officials, notably Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., of the Senate Rules Committee, review what happened to people during this inauguration.

After the day’s events, people struggled to get to where they were staying. Many, like me, walked miles to their destinations. Of those I spoke with, upwards of 25, not one was from the city. Like me, they were there to be a part of history.

The issues went beyond an overcrowded transit system that people waited hours to board."

Get the Story:
Kara Briggs: Witnessing the human traffic jam (Indian Country Today 1/28)

Related Stories:
Kara Briggs: Answering Obama's call to hope (1/15)
Kara Briggs: Bolivia's president reaches America (12/4)
Kara Briggs: Apologies to indigenous peoples (11/24)
Kara Briggs: Storytellers for Thanksgiving (11/21)