Here’s a note to remind you that the full dress rehearsal for the Olympic opening ceremonies takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10.

Why is this important? Well, tomorrow will also be a rehearsal for the downtown Vancouver traffic restrictions around the ceremonies on Friday. Look out for some road closures, crowds of spectators heading to B.C. Place, and lots of loading in and out on a few streets. It is not recommended that you drive downtown!

Vancouver2010.com has a whole page about getting around during the opening and closing ceremonies, and here’s the parts about Feb 10 specifically:

The following streets will be closed from noon to midnight on February 10, 12, 28 and March 12:

* Cambie Street bridge (all lanes closed to vehicle traffic, however pedestrian and bike access will be maintained via the east and west sidewalks)
* Beatty Street (between Smithe and Georgia)
* North sidewalk of the 1100 block of West Hastings, in front of the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel (4 pm to 5:30 pm)

On February 10, 12, and 28 there will also be a significant amount of motorcoach activity including loading, unloading and staging on Coal Harbour Quay, Canada Place and West Cordova from noon to 11 pm.

The Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Vancouver (Feb 12, 28 and March 12), and associated dress rehearsal (February 10) are special days where vehicle travel downtown is strongly discouraged. Choose a sustainable mode, such as walking, cycling or transit. If driving is absolutely necessary, plan to leave downtown by noon, or wait until the ceremonies are underway after 5:30 pm.

But please do visit the Vancouver2010.com page on the opening ceremonies for full details — there’s more tips and info there.

Also, if you’re attending the rehearsal, one more thing you might want to keep in mind is that the security screening will take a bit of time, so you should leave early and account for that. For the smaller dress rehearsal on Monday, Marc Smith says it took him over an hour to get into the venue after lining up on Beatty St. I was there too, and lineups did take quite a while!