San Francisco Giants Victory Parade: Almost Everything You Need to Know

Here's almost everything you need to know about Friday's San Francisco Giants victory parade. (The "almost" concerns the weather -- see details below.) You can also watch the parade live online.

Update, 10:40 a.m.: Do we really have a lot more to add? Well, you know it's raining. But KQED's folks out on Market Street (Isabel Angell, Jeremy Raff and James Tensuan) say that's not dampening spirits any, and the crowd is growing. The good news on both the weather and transportation fronts is:  a) the forecast says that the heaviest of the rain will have passed by noon, when the parade starts and, b) BART has mostly recovered from its early-morning troubles.

Update, 8:55 a.m. Friday

Rain: The rain has made an early arrival in San Francisco. Well, you can see that. The National Weather Service says the main band of rain should arrive by 9:30 a.m.; the weather after that is forecast to be intermittently showery. The Giants will reportedly toss out 20,000 orange ponchos along the route -- sure to be snapped up both as weather protection and souvenirs of the great day.

BART troubles: The agency has prepared for a big day, running rush-hour level service all day long (and until 2 a.m. Saturday to accommodate late trick-or-treaters.) But things have gotten off to a rough start Friday morning with switching problems in the system's Daly City yards that quickly created delays of 30 minutes or more. BART has also advised that station parking lots filled up early and that agents are seeing long lines at ticket machines.

Original post:

Time: Noon

Start: Steuart and Market streets, traveling along Market, before making a right turn onto McAllister and culminating in a rally at Civic Center Plaza.

Weather: The National Weather Service is calling for rain beginning early in the morning and continuing off and on all day -- with a possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. The forecast high: about 64.

Getting there and away: Arrive early -- about 1 million people attended the 2012 parade. BART is running extra trains all day, pledging to "use every available train possible." They will also run trains until 2 a.m. for folks who want to stick around and celebrate Halloween in the city.

Caltrain is also adding service with eight additional trains in the morning, and six after noon. Every train after the parade will make all local stops.

SFMTA is also adding six Metro shuttles beginning at 9 a.m.

Golden Gate Transit, AC Transit, SamTrans and ferries are also offering expanded services.

Road closures: The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority will begin shutting down streets at 7 p.m. Thursday, including parts of McAllister Street, Grove Street and streets around City Hall.

At 9 a.m. the city will close parts of Steuart Street (between Howard & Market streets), Spear Street (between Howard & Market streets), Main Street (between Howard & Market streets), Market Street (between Steuart & 10th streets) and Mission Street (between Van Ness Avenue & The Embarcadero). Note, that after 9:30 a.m. pedestrians will no longer be allowed to cross Market Street. So pick your side of the parade early.

Streets are expected to be open again by 5 p.m.

Muni: If your bus (or cable car) goes down Market Street it will be impacted beginning at 9 a.m. and until the parade route is cleared.

Bikes: There will be limited bike parking. Bikes are not allowed on Mission or Market streets. It's also Critical Mass, which begins at 6 p.m. in Justin Herman Plaza.