With over 60,000 expected attendees, Oracle OpenWorld is one of San Francisco's biggest conferences. Though the event doesn't start until Sunday, preparations are already underway in the area of Moscone Center, which means closed streets and worse traffic snarls on 4th Street than there already have been during the Central Subway construction.

According to the SFMTA, from 5 a.m. yesterday through on 5 p.m., Saturday, October 4, Howard Street between 3rd and 4th streets will be closed. Instead, all Howard Street traffic (that means car, Muni, bike, pedestrian, those loud little scooter things, whatever else) will be sent down 2nd Street to Harrison Street or down New Montgomery Street to Hawthorne Street, then to either Folsom or Harrison streets.

But that's not the only transit knot: from 8 p.m. tonight through 10 a.m., Friday, October 3, Taylor Street between O’Farrell and Ellis Streets will also go down for the count. Taylor Street traffic will be sent west on Ellis Street, north on Leavenworth Street, east on O’Farrell Street and back to Taylor. Whee!

That means, the SFMTA says, that riders of the following routes should expect disruptions and delays during the closures:

8X (AX/BX) Bayshore Express
9 San Bruno
10 Townsend
12 Folsom
14 Mission
14L Mission Limited
14X Mission Express
16X Noriega
30 Stockton
38/38L Geary
41 Union
45 Union-Stockton
81X Caltrain Express

So, what's Oracle going to be doing with those streets? As the Chron explains, Howard will once again become "Oracle Plaza," with "five giant video screens for attendees who are not able to get into the main keynote speech rooms." Keynotes like the one from Larry Ellison, everyone's favorite Hawaiian island owning former CEO! What a treat.

And at 4th Street, the company will be re-assembling their 72-foot yacht that won last year’s America’s Cup. (You remember the America's Cup, that Larry Ellison vanity project that cost San Francisco millions? Yeah, that's the one!)

ANYWAY. Traffic will be a shitshow in the area, the MTA warns, as will walking around: those 60,000 conference attendees will be rushing to and from the event, which stretches across, the Chron reports, "three Moscone center halls, plus several major hotels in the area, including the Palace, the Intercontinental, the St. Regis, the Hilton Union Square and the Marriott Marquis." Have fun at Mel's, y'all!