All Signs Pointing To Staying Off Roads

Metro officials said they plan normal service all week, including Friday. Metro declined a request by the U.S. Park Police to keep the subway running all night tonight and tomorrow because it would have prevented the transit system from doing needed maintenance on rail cars and track.

Instead, Metro will operate free shuttle buses between Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and the Capitol every 15 minutes from 11:30 p.m. today to 6 a.m. tomorrow. It will repeat that service during the same hours tomorrow night into Friday morning, spokesman Ray Feldmann said.

Parking at RFK Stadium will be free and will be monitored by D. C. police. An exact location for pickup and drop-off had not been determined by late yesterday.

Transportation officials were at a loss to think of a comparable event. The closest, they said, was the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1995, when parts of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Interstate 95 were closed for his motorcade to go from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Camden Yards. Officials were in the dark about which routes would be taken for that trip, but roads were nearly empty as drivers stayed away.

But that was a one-day event on a Sunday morning.

Rita Gaines, who drives from Germantown to New Carrollton every afternoon, said this would be different. Although she should be out of the area before Reagan's body even touches down at Andrews, she's braced for a frustrating drive home because "there's a backup every day" and "because of this event there's going to be extra chaos and confusion."

The situation is particularly vexing for companies whose business it is to zip back and forth across the region. David Guernsey, president and chief executive of Chantilly-based Guernsey Office Products, said his business will grind to a near halt for the remainder of the week. He has encouraged some employees to take vacation time, and the company has called customers to put off deliveries until next week.

"To the extent we can delay until Monday, we'll delay until Monday," Guernsey said. "There's just no fighting through this. It's going to be brutal."

Staff writer Lyndsey Layton contributed to this report.