Inauguration Day 2013 (image courtesy of the First Lady's twitter account)

Monday's inauguration went off without any serious hitches. Sure, there's some Tuesday morning quarterbacking. It turned out that Beyoncé lip-synched the national anthem. Michelle Obama might have directed a sarcastic look at John Boehner during the post-inauguration luncheon. That could be a Supreme Court justice nodding off during the proceedings.

But the District's Department of Transportation (DDOT) couldn't have been happier.

"See that?! See that?! NO, not that great coat, the bike lanes!!!" the agency tweeted, referring to a photo of the First Couple walking on the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes.

The photo, which was circulated by the First Lady's Twitter account, quickly made waves among bike advocates.

"Obama Becomes First Prez to Walk Down a Bike Lane on Inauguration Day," read a Streetsfilms headline. One wishful bike blog took it a step further:

"One of the things that we were most proud about was that the inaugural parade was the chance to show off our bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue," said DDOT spokesman John Lisle. The lane, which was installed in 2010, did not exist during the last inauguration.

Lisle added that about 600 bikes were parked in the DDOT's bike corrals and bike parking lots as well -- a lower number than the 1,000 bikes parked during the 2009 presidential inauguration -- but then again, Capital Bikeshare didn't yet exist.

A DDOT bike corral on 17th and K (photo by Eric Gilliland via flickr)

As it turned out, fewer people rode Capital Bikeshare than expected. According to Lisle, there were 4,572 total trips on Inauguration Day -- but 5,772 the day before.

Meanwhile: D.C.'s Metrorail recorded 779,787 trips during the 2013 inauguration. That's about 70% of the ridership reached during the 2009 inauguration.

The transit agency chalked up the lower crowds to Monday's federal holiday, which cut down on work commuters.

Cowds outside of L'Enfant Plaza Monday afternoon after the temporary closure of the gates (photo by Jonathan Wilson/WAMU)

(with reporting from Martin DiCaro)

President Obama delivered his second inaugural address today in Washington, D.C. Two voters who chose him in November, and one who didn't react to the president's address. Horacio Soberon-Ferrer is an independent Florida voter and vice president of the Alliance for Aging. Hermene Hartman is the editor-in-chief of N’Digo Magazine. John Rampe is a registered Republican and president of an Ohio manufacturing company.

President Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural address to a crowd of several hundred thousand today in Washington D.C. Todd Zwillich, Washington correspondent for The Takeaway, and Dick Stevenson, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, offer their analyses.

Today, as the president takes the oath of office once more, the palpable hope and excitement of Obama's first inauguration has waned. How will President Obama's second inaugural compare to his first, and how does it fit the history of second inaugurals, from Lincoln on forward? Historian and author Kenneth C. Davis explores the history of second inaugurals, and discusses the expectations for President Obama.

This second inauguration day offers a second moment for President Obama to address the nation without the press of a crises or under the specific obligation of the U.S. Constitution. It's also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We meet Dr. King through the archives of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Eleanor Fisher, who interviewed Dr. King back in 1961.

The Brian Lehrer Show's coverage of Barack Obama's 2013 inaugural ceremony and address. Featuring analysis from Clarence Page, live from the National Mall in Washington, Jodi Kantor on Obama's second term agenda, and Kenneth C. Davis on the surprising history of inauguration day.

(As prepared for delivery)

Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: 

Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

In the midst of all of today's pageantry, it's worth taking a step back and looking at what President Obama has done with his first term, especially when it comes to civil rights. Jared Ball is associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University. Ron Christie is a Republican political strategist.

Some of American rhetoric's most famous lines have been given during inaugural addresses.

What line would you write for Barack Obama's 2nd inaugural speech?

Submit one line (and one line only!) that will echo through the ages in the comments section below.

The Previously Unreleased Interviews of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | Considering Obama's Record on Civil Rights | The History of Second Inaugurals | Undocumented Immigrant Working Toward Becoming Immigration Lawyer | The People's Poem, Written and Recorded by You

Last week, noted poet Kwame Dawes started our our crowd-sourced inaugural poem project with these lines: Say "nation." In the wake of quarrels, say "hope." And you took it from there, sending us hundreds of suggestions for lines to be included in the poem via Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Watch President Barack Obama's second inauguration, live from the National Mall in Washington D.C. The ceremony will feature performances by Beyonce, James Taylor and poet Richard Blanco. As you watch, help us create a People's Poem, by Tweeting your ideas using #PrezPoem and follow along with the best responses.

Poet Kwame Dawes started off a poem for us earlier this week, and we've been sorting through nearly 200 responses in search of the perfect people's poem. Elizabeth Alexander read the poem at President Obama's 2009 inauguration.

The presidential inauguration is less than a week away. But if you don’t have tickets to an inaugural ball or you’re not planning to be out there watching the swearing-in in Washington, don’t worry, we’ve still got a way for you to be part of the occasion. Willy Chyr, founder of Collabowriters, a website that’s crowd-sourcing a novel, shares his advice for curating a crowd-sourced story.

(photo by Martin DiCaro)

No matter your mode of transportation to the second inauguration of President Barack Obama you will have to do a lot of walking, as D.C.'s police force will establish a large “hard perimeter” around the parade route closed to vehicular travel and bicycles. (A map of the restricted area is here.)

Before you begin to hoof it, however, the easiest way to get close to the National Mall may be on a bicycle.  Bicycling advocates expect thousands of people to pedal into downtown D.C. on Monday morning, and DDOT is taking steps to accommodate them.

For starters, there will be a large bicycle parking area established at 16^th Street and I Street NW starting at 7 a.m.

“That’s going to hold about 700 bikes but you are going to want to bring your own lock.  It’s not valet parking but it will be supervised all day,” said DDOT planner Jim Sebastian.

As for Capital Bikeshare, there will be two special docking areas – corrals – that will accept an unlimited number of bikes: at Farragut Square in Northwest and at the USDA building at 12^th Street and Independence Avenue Southwest.

“It’s essentially a bottomless station where you can come down and not have to worry about there being an empty space,” Sebastian said.

Starting today six bike share stations along the inaugural parade route will be temporarily dismantled. To make up for the closed stations, CaBi will open a temporary corral to accept bikes. You can see the list here.

For bicycling advocates, Monday presents an opportunity to show how much progress D.C. has made in becoming a bike-friendly city.

"This is going to be the first year that we have bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue during an inauguration, so President Obama is going to be riding down Pennsylvania Ave. and those bike lanes are going to be in all those photos,” said Greg Billing at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. “This is a great time for us to show off to the nation that D.C. is a bike city and that we are setting an example that other cities around the country can follow.”

Remember the kerfuffle over bike share stations on the National Mall? Take a trip to March 2012 here.

At The Takeaway, we think poetry was built for the digital age — and this inauguration could use a People’s Poem. So we invited noted poet Kwame Dawes to start us off with a first line — and we want you to be our co-authors! It’s a grand experiment — and here’s how you can make your voice heard.

When Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009, a group of four musicians played Air and Simple Gifts, a somber, elegiac piece by film composer John Williams. So who should perform in January?

(WMATA)

DC's transit agency is circulating proposed designs for a commemorative fare card that will be sold for the presidential inauguration.

(WMATA)

According to a WMATA spokeswoman, the agency will print 100,000 of these $15 cards, which would come pre-loaded with a one-day rail pass. (Functional and collectible!)

Fifty years ago today, the 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy uttered the following words at his inaugural address: 

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Why did JFK’s words strike a cord with so many? And how did his inauguration foreshadow what was ahead for the young president’s time in office?