[Kristy Evans is a senior manager in the Gate, Perimeter and Exodus Department, where she has helped manage the task of getting people in and out of Black Rock City since 2007. The logistics of traffic, people movement, and staffing a huge department still fascinate her, and with an ever growing city there is always more work to do. She first made the trek to the Black Rock Desert in 2003 and began volunteering in 2005 with Gate. She is a member of the Burning Man Leadership Forum, and you can read the rest of her bio here.]
Getting participants in and out of Black Rock City is one of our greatest challenges, and we figure it’s high time to share our ongoing work on the traffic front with you. For most Burners it isn’t the most vibrant topic, except for some of us nerdy types who like to think about systems and logistics (which is probably how we found ourselves huddling around fire barrels drawing traffic scenarios in playa dust for fun).
After the 2011 event, we received more responses (through our Feedback Loop process via feedback@burningman.com) about traffic and wait times than any other topic. And we are listening. Those of us in the Gate, Perimeter & Exodus Department have been reading your feedback for years and have carefully considered the many suggestions put forth by the community.
This year the eight-day Burning Man Special Recreation Permit from the BLM is from 6pm on Sunday, August 26, 2012 to 6pm on Monday, September 3. The Gate will open at 6pm on Sunday, August 26th to ease traffic and ensure public safety. We’re working to do our part and but we need your help keeping the wait times as short as possible. We are passionate and interested in solving the problem. We know traffic in and out of the city can be frustrating and exhausting — many of us have sat in those long lines with you.
Some suggestions from participants include building another exit off the playa and implementing a regulated departure system, which unfortunately aren’t feasible because of real geographic, legal, political, and cultural issues. There is also a physical limit to the number of vehicles we can responsibly (as in safely) release onto the road in any given time period. For a more detailed explanation please read our FAQ.
That said, we really do value your suggestions so please keep them coming! In part thanks to your ideas we developed Pulsing for Exodus — a system of moving vehicles at regular intervals to avoid the long slow creep that challenges the sanity of even the most patient among us. With Pulsing, vehicles can stop and turn off their engines, then are “pulsed” forward all at once. While you wait, you can get out, stretch your legs, and share food and fun with your neighbors in line, creating, in effect, “one hour neighborhoods“.
Your feedback says that it’s working, and it’s a great example of how this community rises to a challenge and comes up with creative solutions. Cheers for Radical Self-Reliance, Communal Effort, and Participation.
See our blog post “Traffic at Burning Man: What YOU Can Do About It” for more detailed information about how you can help us cut down wait times and increase safety, because we’re all in this together, folks.
I LOVED the “one hour neighborhoods” pulsing method y’all had last year on exodus. I think I had met more people quicker in that 6 hour exit than I had all week.
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as someone who’s sat in many, many years of long exodus lines, i assure all you new people that the Pulsing setup is AWESOME. you have no idea how bad it used to be. one-hour neighborhoods kick ass.
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Some of us left last year on the Tuesday following the burn, when traffic was greatly diminished. We were rear-ended by an RV occupied by Burners driving too fast. Needless to say, it was a spectacularly really crappy way to end the burn. People were seriously hurt, but nobody died -thankfully. Is there anyway to put temporary signs along the highway to remind people to drive safely? Have a rolling road block? I’m sure you’ve heard these suggestions before, but just throwing it out there.
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Great. Let the same incompetent leaders lead us into and from BM again this year. It’s been a complete failure in terms of logistics, communication, effectiveness, and efficiency. When will the BMOrg wake up?
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Two years ago, not realizing how long the wait would be even with the pulsing system, we ran out of water and got very sunburned. Last year, we had enough water, only got slightly sunburned, but there were not enough port-a-potties along the way out for everyone who needed one, especially as you got closer to the exit. The few that were there were unserviced, and quite messy and smelly. Not a complaint, just a statement. It was nice to meet lots of additional people and we all stood next to an RV for awhile for some shade.
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The first year of the Exodus pulse I hated it, mainly because I didn’t plan for it and didn’t really understand it. Last year I planned for it and loved it! Instant neighborhoods for an hour! Playing games, cooking out, chatting with new people. It took 5 hours and I didn’t mind one bit. I made it part of the BM experience.
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Just wanted to comment that I left early Sunday morning and Exodus really wasn’t that bad. Because the lines were moving relatively quickly (for Exodus) people did not turn off their engines and mingle.
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There are people that even in the 1-hour pulses will lane hop just so they can be 10 cars ahead. They raise dust, piss people off, and probably crash everyone back into “default world asshole traffic” REALLY fast: “Oh, look at that asshole go, what a loser”…. “Oh look, another asshole”. “Shit, everyone’s going around that big bus/RV/artcar… I’m going too!”.
My suggestion to avoid this is to make a sign (or put it in the survival guide or somewhere) that cars in a pulse should maintain a parallel line with vehicles to their left and right. That way, there is no room for anywhere to lane hop forward. The rule of thumb would be: stay on the same line as the driver to your sides. Smile and wave occasionally, too!
Here’s very poor rendition of what I’m saying. I hope it makes sense and that you find it helpful: http://i.imgur.com/cIf6z.jpg
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Opening the gate 6 hours early…So we’ll have 10’s of thousands of cars sitting in very hot temperatures all with their A/C blasting away. Not very ‘green’.
How about opening the gates at Noon instead of Midnight? More time to get people in, lower temperatures while waiting in line and more people driving in from destinations at non-prime traffic hours.
Just a thought…
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The Tuesday after the burn has nearly no traffic. There are always camps that are still breaking down and could use more help. A lot of times willing bodies are easy to find before the event (especially when you’re waving early passes in their faces) but it completely evaporates at the end when everyone is partied out. The final 24 hours of a camp are often the most critical and most understaffed. Do everyone (including yourself) a favor and go volunteer. I am certain you’ll find it much more rewarding than one-hour-picniciking your day away in the hot sun hardly a mile away.
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while we wait to leave why not have people check to spot problems before they happen..loose loads…overloading…people running out of gas…people pushing cars..
etc….then on the highway you wouldnt see cars and junk and trailers left..
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Pulsing on entry ( or equivalently numbering parking areas like the “now serving” ) would be a great addition and reduction of smelly fumes and agony
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I really think you’re making the best of a really difficult situation. I think the pulsing system for exodus has worked well. I do think the lines at entry could be mitigated if vehicle inspections were relaxed a bit. For the most part I don’t think there is any reason for anyone to be at the gate longer than one or two minutes. I arive in an open truck by myself, (I have early entry) and seem to be stuck behind five RVs every year. It seems to me you could inspect an RV in about a minute, but each one seems to take about 10. If the goal is to keep unticketed people from sneeking in, that seems to be a solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist, or one that is so small it doesn’t justify the long wait. If the idea is to keep out other “contraband”…that doesn’t seem to be very effective. Just my two cents. You guys are doing a GREAT job.
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I think the “Big” in Big Burner is meant to be ironic.
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@Bosco. I believe if you read the blog again you’ll see they are opening the gate as early as the permit allows.
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I’m all for ready FAQs and being prepared. However, it helps when their readable. This link that you posted above, is not.
http://gate.burningman.com/faq-gate.php
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I submitted some ideas to the BLM during their comment period earlier this year. First of all, I suggested splitting the arrival days; unless you have an Early Arrival barcode, you can arrive on Sunday only if your vehicle license plate ends in an even number or the alphabetic letters A through M. Odd numbers and N-Z can arrive on Monday.
For Exodus, I suggested opening the 12-mile Gate for those departing to the north and northwest, i.e. extreme NorCal, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. It’s an easy hop to Alturas, which has gas stations. Also an Eastern gate could be opened for those headed east towards Lovelock and other Nevada destinations, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming etc. The only challenge there is finding a suitable place to cross the railroad, someplace where large vehicles would not get high-centered on the tracks!
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Pave Jungo Road…It could help-)'(-
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@Peace
gate staff is doing more than just searching for stowaways
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Here’s the deal. You need to stagger entrance. You need to stagger exit times. If you can simply regulate when people can actually drive in and out you will not have long waits. Right now it is chaos. Solve that by telling people when their window is to come and go. If they are late or whatever, then they wait, and they can’t bitch about it ever every again.
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I understand that it is a difficult challenge but solvable.
Last year, after seating in heat for long hours, I got in really bad car accident and lucky to be alive. I do not do drugs and I am an excellent driver (no accidents in 17 years of driving) – the only reason that I went off the road and rolled 2,5 times landing upside-down – was long wait in heat.
This problem with exiting could be resolved with planning and implementing time-pass system. Just like getting in you need a ticket. You need a pass (let’s say 8AM to 10AM pass) to get out. No pass, no exit.
I agree with some comments above, perhaps, we need new leadership (better organized) to solve this problem. In my experience with Burning Man Project and limited involvement, things could be much more productive. It feels like there are lot of meetings, “singing” Kumbayah and baking cup-cakes instead of doing something more productive. I do not want to underestimate the hard work that it takes to put this event together but it just needs people with better organization skills and focus.
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To Irene:
Sounds like the department could use your organization skills and focus. Why not volunteer and be part of the solution?
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The very most irritating thing about burning man is the idiots at the entry gate. Quit all the newby bull and take tickets. Most people have driven a long way and don’t want to be entertained by these dumb asses who all have to put on thiere show. Just check the van and take the ticket.
Thanks
6 yr. vet
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@Irene, Very sorry to hear of your accident and glad you’re ok. However, You can’t specify when people get to leave If someone is ready to leave earlier, plans change, etc.. there are just too many variables to confine people into a set window of time they get to leave.
@everyone, As part of radical self-reliance, it is just a fact of life that we have to prepare ourselves mentally and physically for the challenge of leaving. If you aren’t rested, sleep. Plan ahead when packing and take into account what food/water/etc… you might need while waiting to exit. The beauty of the event is that people are leaving all the time. if you want to leave after the man or temple burns, then you take on that responsibility of increased wait times. My wife and I will probably not stay for the temple burn this year and try to leave at a non-peak hour on Sunday as we get to drive all the way back across the country (wee!) But that is a sacrifice we are willing to make for the off-chance that we only have to wait 2-3 hours and not 8-12 hours.
That being said, I have definitely left other festivals with 30-90K people in much faster times. But we have to remember there is only one SMALL two-lane road with soft shoulders for 120 miles. We can’t just build multiple exits and flood it all at once or it would be pure chaos. I think given the sheer volume of people and varied rates of exodus, they are doing the best they can.
Good Luck to everyone on a safe and happy journey IN and OUT of the playa! (maybe safety should be second this year?)
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The issue is that the number of vehicles exceeds the capacity of the roads that lead to the burn. It was suggested some years ago when the issue of traffic was raised that the easiest fixit for exodus was to burn the man on Friday, which results in an extra 24 hours of exit time.
The issue of entry is very complex; the road cannot handle the traffic, staggered or not the road is at its limit and it’s limits are easily exceeded. The only fixit is to expedite entry onto the playa and to expedite the entry into the city.
Finally the issue is safety. All it will take is a major, multi-car with blood on the road with a major road closure accident to take the issue away from the Borg. Driving carefully is not enough. Candidly, there is not enough safety vehicles, piss poor road communication (i.e. cell phone coverage), and just about anything you can think of. The risks of going in on Sunday and leaving by Monday are very high.
These risks are why people check in between Wednesday and Saturday, and leave on Tuesday, or even later. At some point time and risk will cause change and it will not be pretty.
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@Randall – spot checking loads during Exodus is a GREAT idea. We sincerely hope that in the spirit of communal effort and participation, Burners will help each other out during that time.
@Gloria – great suggestion. Each year we encourage folks to volunteer with us to better understand the process and help make it better!
@StormySeas & Ghost – thanks for your comments. Part of the inspiration for doing these blog posts is to engage our community and come up with small individual things that each of us can do ease traffic and improve the experience. There is no magic bullet here – stay tuned to the next post on this issue for more ideas.
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I like pulsing is great compared to the prior alternative. It’s great to turn off the car and find some shade under someone’s vehicle and chat and share something. Putting out more PPs sounds worth considering. Good idea too, to stick around a little longer and help out with breakdown and clean up. On my agenda for this year.
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BMIR is often entertaining to listen to, but their announcements seem to have a very tenuous connection to reality. When they bother to mention the Exodus traffic at all, they report rumors. I don’t think I’ve ever heard them announce a specific pulse event, or explain why pulses weren’t happening hourly when they weren’t.
Is there a practical communication path between the traffic managers who know what’s going on and the DJ at BMIR? It doesn’t seem to be working all that well.
Maybe a dedicated Exodus Radio is needed. Perhaps a brief endless loop announcement recorded directly by a traffic manager, with the ability to break in with live info when necessary.
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I would like to see a graph printed in the WhoWhatWhereWhen the would give APPROXIMATE wait times for each hour of the day(Saturday -Tuesday ) for Exodus. That way you would have a vague idea of when is the time to leave for shortest wait times(sunday 4am for example). I also like an exit to Jungo road. It would take a he k of a lot of money to grade a road and make the RR crossing RV friendly( or limit it to non RV’s).
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@Paul MustBeArt
Interesting you should mention that, we are working out the kinks on just such a radio station for this year. Gate Area Radio Station, 95.1FM will be a loop of information about getting in during ingress and getting out during egress. This was in response to folks mentioning that they wanted the info without having to listen to BMIR for hours. Announcing the Pulse will likely happen on the ground with megaphones as that will be most efficient and immediate.
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A number of these comments are of the ‘they should,’ or ‘you should’ variety. The fact of it is that we as a community choose to attend an event with tens of thousands of other people who arrive and depart at the same time via a single-lane highway.
People in the organization are working hard to make traffic problems better, but ultimately it’s up to us as participants to solve/ameliorate/deal with the inherent difficulties in getting on and off of the playa. Arriving early (through volunteering with infrastructure or for an art project) or arriving even a half day or so after the gate opens will spare you the worst of the entry traffic. Conversely, leaving early or staying late will allow you to avoid the worst of exodus.
When we’re waiting in line, it’s our choice to do the same thing as thousands of other people at the same time as the thousands of other people chose to do it. Burning Man is challenging, difficult, and frequently unpleasant. Some parts of the experience are less fun than other parts. If you don’t get that, or if the good and bad experiences don’t balance out, then perhaps this isn’t a good event for you to attend.
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I agree with Tim’s comment with a small exception. Yes, Newbies should roll around in the dust, ring the bell, etc. etc., if they want to. But PLEASE, have an express lane for people who just want to get in. After driving 9 hours, I just want to get out of the car, set up my camp, sit in my chair and have a beer. Yes, I’m happy for Newbies and they should have all the fun at the gate, but it’s maddening to have to wait through their revelry. Please make an express lane!
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@Donna – I think you may be confusing greeters and the gate. All that bell ringing happens at the greeters, after you pass through the gate. Having an express lane at greeters is something I agree should be explored.
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I do Six Sigma for a living and basically the ONLY thing that helps something like BM’s traffic is to identify, then alleviate your bottlenecks. The real Exodus bottleneck is the road downstream, but we’ve created an artificial bottleneck where the playa meets the county road and by doing so probably made things a lot worse than they need to be. And on the ingress, the real bottleneck is our Camp itself, so rather than swamp it we created a second artificial bottleneck called The Gate. But we could still make even those flow faster… some background first:
The first rule of alleviating them is NEVER do anything to make them worse, like batching (read: “pulsing”) does… Batches always slow things down, contrary to intuition, and letting single vehicles through one at a time (albiet quite snappily) always speeds things up, contrary to intuition. Often in Six Sigma we find that the real culprit isn’t the bottleneck, it’s a policy ABOUT the bottleneck that might actually not make good sense.
The second rule of alleviating bottlenecks is simply find every creative way to either move stuff past the bottleneck faster or expand its capacity. For example, I like the suggestion of making it optional to skip the greeters with an express line. That is clearly a suggestion which will actually help. Another obvious and workable suggestion is staggered arrival and departure times – voila! less load on the bottleneck at peak times by tricking time into equalling increased capacity.
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(For more on alleviating bottlenecks see the work of Eliyahu Goldratt. Turns out there is an entire science to it, and he was one of its leading practical thoughtmakers.)
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In our excitement to get into camp I think we are missing site of the reason for the slowness a the inspection and greeters station. It is the same as the bouncer at the club letting in a few at a time. If you drop individual marbles one by one they spread in a random pattern. If you drop them all at once they bounce against each other and fight for space.
It’s a line, it’s slow for a good reason. Take a deep breath and relax!
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Leaving Tuesday rocks. Unfortunately I had to leave at oh-god-thirty on Tuesday but there was all of 5 of us on the road. I just wish I had a later flight so I could have spent more time with LNT cleanup @ camp.
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I left right after the Temple Burn in both 2010 and 2011 and waited no more than 3:30 in line at Exodus (2011); 2010 wait was even shorter. I prepared for a long wait with a great attitude and a full thermos of strong assed coffee and was suprised at how quickly I got out (both times). I don’t know why people are in such a hurry to get back to the default world… Either way, Exodus is still part of Burning Man so make the best of it and enjoy it :)
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Thanks Mr. Chiff, wasn’t confused, just wasn’t clear. At the gate, yes, they need to search vehicles, I don’t expect an express lane there. But absolutely, at the Greeters’ station, there should be some changes. After 16 years of attending, I don’t need to ring the bell…..I don’t need to watch newbies ring the bell….I just want out of the car.
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What about bathrooms? We waited in line to leave for 11hrs and only saw a few portapotties. Please put more! Lets put it this way if there wouldn’t have been neighbor with a bathroom in thier RV it would have been a disgusting disaster.
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Today a bunch of us got together and entry and exodus wound up on the agenda. We created an issue; BLM granted a permit for 70k people, NDOT (nevada version of CAlTRANS) told the event only 10k vehicles could go onto the playa.
Well, first off no more car camping; Rv’s and vehicles pulling trailers or trucks with campers are ok and can stay, but what about the rest of us?
A parking lot is created around Empire, people park and get on an express bus that takes them to the City Center – but what about tents and all the other stuff – remember you can have a campmate or two use trucks and trailers to take your stuff in early or you can have the ‘heavy lift stuff’ pre packed in containers and pre-positioned on the playa. At the end of the event the bus takes people to Empire, to pick up their cars and go home, and the remaining vehicles on the playa go through exodus.
Next idea was not pretty, cars can go in upack and then leave, like a 24 hour pass and if found after the 24 hours it is towed off the playa. this was one was bad in that you could have cars coming and going at bad times.
Well the concept is revolving around planning; the fewer vehicles that get on the playa the better for all of us.
But the hypothetical is a good basis for discussion; what if only 10,000 vehicles could go onto the playa – have fun with it we sure did.
Oh yea, we talked about vehicle tickets. Boy love see that as a lottery, but many events do charge for RVs, campers, tents (usually in certain restricted areas) and so forth. Many events do not allow many vehicles in.
Ahhh on and on remember the issue is the roads are ‘overloaded’ and there are toooo many vehicles.
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I liked the post about assigning times for leaving. I also understand that you can not prevent people from leaving too. What if we had two exit lines. One without an appointment. One with an appointment. To get an appointment you show up that morning and either get the next available time or time of your choice for that day. If you have an appointment then you arein the line which has three cars leaving for every one that is without an appointment. Or some appropriate ratio to make it worth while to get a time. Those without times just have to wait like normal but with an appointment can hang out with their friends rather than in line while waiting.
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The pulse system is conceptually perfect, but what could make it better are more volunteers, which would:
1—-Have a sign at each entrance with the number and this message:
“Line #8 – – Please listen to KBMR radio for updates”
and
“Please make absolutely sure your vehicle will not spill trash
and everything is secure”
2—-Seriously get it together with KBMR… they are totally out of touch with the Exodus situation and even play endless PSA’s about portapottie manners and events that have already happened during Exodus… if not busy giving airtime to everyone who has lost their favorite hat.
3—-With extra volunteers, KEEP the cones one vehicle width wide, not two, because WAY too often people abuse their line.
4—–Because the lane is only one vehicle wide, there could be a breakdown, and what to do?
5—–Because there are extra volunteers, in great communication with the Exodus crew near the highway, instead of moving vast numbers of vehicles, just go back a certain number (I don’t know how many…30??? 50?) and let them go straight to the highway. I’ve noticed the Exodus crew is GREAT at pulsing the vehicles out to the highway. A steady stream of cars is NOT a good idea. It is VERY comforting to finally get on the highway and perhaps see the last pulse is a mile or two ahead…the message received to the brain being “no need to hurry…can’t pass everyone in every pulse. Take it easy.”
6—–So, a group of cars is released, cones put in front of the next vehicle in line, and the volunteers walk back another 50 vehicles. Repeat until at the end of that line.
7—–Begin again at the beginning of the next line.
BTW, great job
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Whoops, radio station BMIR, not KBMR
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leaving before monday 6 pm !!
start to look like my last one
do you realize
you guys are crumbling under your own weight
good luck
you got one more year to give me a reason to come back
thank for the good time
Seb
15 years burner
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another opinion….
1-The paved road is self limiting at one lane each way, it will self regulate all on it’s own. The lines / congestion / confusion / pollution all start when the flow is reduced or stopped at the dirt when the inexperienced volunteers take “control”
The only solution that will ever work is one that keeps things moving – as in MOVING. Current BM thinking is it needs more control and more regulation, you think if you weren’t there to control restrict it, that it would all fall apart – or, worst, that you would be held accountable and responsible for everyone… both bad concepts at their core.
1- NO first timer noob’s working the entry gate – grab the tickets and wave on. Nearly all of the entry line issues are reduced to BM not wanting to loose a few $ on tickets (.) What is the cost of a few hundred people sneaking in ? LONG WAIT LINES / POLLUTION / TRAFFIC = unhappy people… This community is self-policing “for the most part”. How many people are caught trying to sneak in each year ? That is the exact $ amount that creates 45000 unhappy people with LONG WAIT LINES / POLLUTION / TRAFFIC – is it worth it ? really ? I’m not suggesting that nobody search for the scumbag stowaways – but the current method of searching is NOT working – try random, like every 3rd truck and every 10th car, and yes, be ok with sacrificing at little less profit to END this issue.And looking back over the past 10 years, it’s not even the search process, but the ticket takers, and at the front of the lines, “staging” people a few at a time, so as not to overwhelm the greeters or something ? Stopping/Clogging the entry line to save the greeter line ? no, that’s not ok….
2- SPEED up the greeting process – Actually what I think is happening is you are regulating and aka “stopping” the flow at/through the greeters station to control people from moving on the playa…. not cool….
After sitting in the truck for 14 hours, it’s another line to wait in, and honestly after doing it 10 times, I don’t look forward to some tool writing his name on my windshield, yelling in my ear, and spraying with with god knows what..
3-Exodus – the important part: remove the 16 lanes of “parkinglot” and make it four lanes, AND … MOVE THE ROAD ! – either to the left of right of the existing entry road. It would take 8 hours and 4 people to move the banners and cones. Basically the road is “fucking destroyed” from everyone coming in, and a lot of trash and loose/lost load issues are created from the extreme washboard / potholes / ruts – let alone the dust and confusion resulting from lane changes (not all people are trying to get ahead, they are trying to keep their vehicle from being damaged )
Currently there are 12-16 lanes ? – and NOBODY can accurately estimate how long it’s going to take to move that many people. With more lines you are just creating a larger parking lot, and a longer more troublesome wait, not it’s bathrooms/overheating/out of fuel issues – not so many lines = not so long a DRIVE wait. With the current stop n go method, you have figured out a way to reduce the fuel/pollution impact, just like a trying to bandaid the problem instead of getting rid of it completely. Let the people wait on the playa, in their camps instead of sitting in a parking lot…. If there are 4 lanes – it’s an easy guess at 15 minutes from greeters station to pavement and everyone could see it. The new road would then move an accurate and predictable smooth flow of vehicles. The entry point would start at the greeter station, and I think most people would much prefer to wait around camp helping out / mooping or socializing, instead of packed in a car, especially if they knew it was going to be 6-8hours…. I don’t think anybody would willingly get into an 8 hour traffic line ?
move the road – make 4 lanes……
2-t
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This is a MAJOR issue. Idling cars ruins the whole green aspect of the culture.
1. Pulse vehicles.
2. Appoint arrival and departure times, regular wait for late/early people.
3. Separate lines for RV’s trailers, from single vehicles.
4. Use part of the unused land to create a large holding area. Burners park there and are given an entrance time/ticket. One column of vehicles are escorted in at a time.
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Abselutely a great idea. one and a half hours would be O.K. Yeah Burning man
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Ive not seen this idea before Why not throw the idea to the railroad people running a passenger train or two ?? the light tenters more or less carry every thing they need on there backs a shuttel bus would be needed but could be a way to get there and leave with less cars on the road .
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Hi there!
Not sure this idea has long been discussed. But I have always observed during exodus that the flow back onto the main road is significantly slowed by passing traffic to or from Gerlach. Especially at night, when it is harder to judge the distance and speed a vehicle approaches with. Burners with their heavy vehicles don’t dare making the turn onto the main road when a car approaches with 50 mph. Perhaps, it is possible to temporarily install an All-Way Stop sign, so that cars on the main road will have to come to a halt before passing the exodus road. This will increase exodus significantly.
Not sure what it would take to get such permit, and one problem will be that locals aren’t used to having a stop sign there. Thus, the stop will need announcement signs or slow signs or som’ like that.
Just an idea.
BTW, pulsing is great!
Best
Markus
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When my friend and I went to BM for the first time in 2010, we heard that a good time o leave was the monday at 3:00am. Boy were we wrong. Sat in traffic for 5 hours. Sometimes we had to change lanes because people would fall asleep in their car and jam up the lane. That was pretty bad. But last year, I had the idea to leave right when the temple fell during its burning. What took 5 hours the year before, took us pretty much only 15 minutes to get through.
I am interested in this Pulse idea. I would rather dash out and make good time though instead of being in traffic. But if I did get stuck, I think have one hour neighbors would be quite fun.
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In 2011 it was 8 hours between when I got into line and when I got to pavement. I don’t think pulsing helped move traffic faster last year or the year before. BMR was saying 3 hours to get out the whole time I was in line, thus planning in terms of adequate food or water readily available was impossible, and that was the first time in 12 yrs BMR failed so badly. The 1 hour community has it pluses, but how many more people had accidents from fatigue or dehydration on the way home? Things that will help are ACCURATE reports on the radio so people know what they are facing, and setting up a separate line for people turning north on 447. I’d drive to SF through Susanville if it meant not sitting in line for 7 MORE hours. The only Burning Man experience worse than last year’s Exodus was this year’s ticketing fiasco. The last 2 years, the ones with pulsing, have been the WORST Exodus experiences by far since my first Burn in 1998. I can’t help but think there is a connection.
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Hi all,
I don’t know what the solution is because I don’t really understand the thinking behind the need for the pulse – at least not an hour long. I see it as an extra party excuse at the end, which is fine but…. I do know that it took 7 hrs to get out and a further 4 hrs to get to Reno to sleep at 2am. As designated driver (the only driver in our group – not all English people drive :-O I was almost hallucinating on the road trying to stay awake as we got nearer to Reno and to be honest I think we’re lucky to be alive. I should imagine there are lots of accident stories like the ones above, as you have no option but to keep going until you get to civilization – which in reality isn’t actually very far away in terms miles.
As a comparison, if you can be out of Glastonbury Festival grounds which is remote too and huge compared to BM (150 000) in 1 or 2 hours (often in really awful weather conditions) then why with the great roads you have is there a problem for those who just need to get moving to leave normally? Getting in took 5hrs… I can cope with that though… Excitement makes up for it!
All the best,
Christian
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Have preferred lanes for cars. Last year I was driving alone in a rented car and since I couldn’t conceal anything in there I went through the check in 1 minute. Too bad I had to sit for hours behind all those RVs before it was my turn.
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Last year was my first year. The wait time going in was 3-4 hours, but it was the start of my experience, I met many people and had lots of fun. When it was time to leave (Monday) I drove to the gate only to find that the lines were just not moving. I decided to turn around and find something to do.. I ended up partying at the radio station, helping clean up center camp, and sleeping by the fire that was the man. I woke up at 5am Tuesday and rolled out like a bandit in the night. If exodus is your #1 issue, don’t participate in it! Stay an extra night! Help someone take down their camp. Like I said this was my first year, and it seemed obvious to me.
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Pulsing on entry, please.
Make stop lines every other mile (at least) – let the mile ahead of the line empty, then allow the next mile to move up. Only the last (half) mile before the gate is constantly moving – all others can turn off their engines.
Communicate this, loud and clear, so people understand and take advantage.
It will save 50 tons of fuel. At least. Probably 100. It will reduce the number of vehicles with empty tank. It will shorten the waiting line at the gas station on exodus day.
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What Liam Be’em Says says. The pulsing is actually creating big batches that make exodus take longer. Pulsing perhaps “feels” better because when the movement finally comes after (at least) an hour of waiting, we are actually moving. Instead of going 1/2-1mph over 5 hours, we are going 5 mpg in spurts over 8-12 hours.
(Liam Be’em Say, I worked directly with Goldratt for many years up til his death last year… your post warmed my heart)
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I’m in agreement with having an express lane to get in as a returning Burner. I don’t need the idle chatter at the entrance. Reduce the vehicle searches unless they are really, really productive in terms of finding stowaways. BM is needlessly creating the long wait times to get in. I have no suggestions for exodus except consider not increasing the total population again until solutions are created. Thanks guys. Still love the event. Coming back for year 6 in a row.
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Come on guys…. sit back an enjoy the ride out. plan ahead,water,food,sleep, friends ,new friends. share the drive out ( sitting ) whatever. You just had the time of you life. rememeber, for some of us this may be our time on the playa to to illness or whatever. life is to short to bitch about a little more fucking time spent with playa friends..i will bet most people spent hours and days or even months planning this great event and joy. whats another 5 or 12 hours……you can`t get home in ahour anyway! Remember life is short…..i`ll be planning my 2013 (10th trip in a roll) while waiting to exit. see ya in line………….
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Burning the Man on Friday is the best solution I’v heard to eleviate the traffic during Exodus. Please consider it.
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Entry can suck. Exodus too. Avoid them both by arriving on Tuesday and leaving the following Tuesday.
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However we want to spin it, we’re trying to funnel an absolutely massive number of vehicles on to a road with very limited capacity. I think an admirable job has been done in years past. That being said, there’s definitely room for improvement. Some great suggestions have been made above and many of you seem quite capable of contributing your expertise to positive effect. Why not get involved?
A suggestion for those inclined/in theme camps: Arrive early, leave on Saturday afternoon before the Man burns. I’ve seen the Man and Temple burn many times and while they’re lovely spectacles to behold, they’re not the highlight of the experience for me. I plan to arrive early on Thursday and help build camp, and sail out of the gate unimpeded by 5pm Saturday afternoon. The Esplanade is quite lively the weekend before general admission, and is just as fun as prime time (sans weekend warriors, of course). Not for everyone, and requires early entry, but one way to avoid the stress and lines.
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The only thing I can see that may help, is letting us know what some of the WORST times to leave are, and some of the best, measured by past years.
Starting with: Leave immediately after the Man burns, all the way to Tuesday morn. Break each day into maybe 4 pieces, and use one of those things cities use to gauge traffic, the black rubber hose device that measures how many axles cross over it.
Sat Midnight to 6 AM Sunday
Sunday 6AM to Noon
Sunday Noon to 6PM
Sunday 6PM to Midnight
Same for Monday and then the one on Tuesday
TOTAL “Segments”: 8
People can then “self sort” to less crowded times to leave. Most people don’t have a clue on best times to leave, but would probably change their departure time if they knew this info.
Same can probably be done for arrivals, and you can let people know what have historically been the WORST times to show up. I for one, will happily come at any time of day or night that is easier to get in or out.
Ron Schweitzer (City Planner by Education, Small Business guy in Reality Camp)
Happy to Volunteer for planning and such if you need people!
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if i recall correctly, when i first started going to the burns, the man burned on friday. (1996) — this really would help spread out the traffic.
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Thanks for the posts. My niece & I are first year burners camping with my nephew a 12+ burner. Two other newbies are carpooling w/ us in & out. I appreaciate the info re leaving. We fly out Monday afternoon from Reno so I guess we’ll leave in the early AM Monday and hope for the best. Thanks for all the info and planning. Enjoying the journey: on the “write” track.
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My only practical suggestion would be a separate lane or two for passenger cars without trailers. This would help the entry process for scores of burners whose vehicles take a fraction of the time it tales to search an RV.
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Our one hour neighbors were awesome last year.
Two sweet girls were giving out herb infused neck wraps.
We were in line for 9 hours leaving last year. We left at the very worst
time to leave on Monday. We are leaving on Tuesday this year instead. But it was still all chill last year, get over your fears of waiting and bring fun things for others to enjoy on monday (your neighbors for an hour.)
And definitely bring your journal, it’s a great time to write.
Before there was pulsing it really was allot harder, Getting to turn off your
car is nice.
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Exit has been pretty awful at each of my three burns. I have hesitated to bitch because I haven’t yet volunteered as gate staff, and I know the folks I’ve seen work hard. But the gate staff and entire process needs to be MUCH more organized. The lanes, the pulsing, it’s all great in theory but for in my experience it fails miserably in reality.
My first year (2008) we had two cars in our party, one headed to Sacramento. We left at the same time, got in different lanes…they got home while we were still in line! (four hour lane difference, if I recall) Wow. This last year, we were in the exit lane for 8 hours, and as another commented said they were reporting 3-5 hours waits the entire time we sat in line. We would have waiting until late at night had we known it was already 8 hours when we got in line. What ticked us off the most last year was that we saw one lone gate volunteer the entire 8-hour wait until the very end. NO ONE was managing the lanes AT ALL. People changing lanes all over, stalled vehicles blocking lanes for hours, etc. Anyhow, at the very end there were 3 gate staff racing around doing the best they could (and not making much a difference). But when we finally crept towards the exit, there were easily 20-30 gate volunteers just hanging around drinking beers, watching the disaster. Helpful.
I heartily agree with the idea of specified exit times. I have serious doubts that pulsing would work even if executed perfectly by a large, organized volunteer staff. Ten bazillion cars trying to leave at once is still ten bazillion cars trying to go through a bottleneck, whether they turn off their engines or not. Split exit slots over the most popular 48 hour stretch. People who must leave by a certain time should sign up as early as possible. Others with more lax schedules can be, well, relaxed, and get a time slot that remains. And as for entry, I don’t know why the same can’t be applied. If you’re early, to D lot with you.
And is there some incentive you can offer exit volunteers? A trusted, well-advertised system of rewards after volunteer service at really critical areas would help, I’m sure. No matter the system, exit and entry needs more people working in an organized fashion. I know BM is all about altruism, but clearly not enough people (me included, let’s be honest) aren’t feeling the love enough by the end of the week to tackle a hard, hot, thankless job.
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Last year’ exodus was made much worse by a pile-up on I-80. BMIR was begging people to stay until Tuesday. I agree a lane for those turning north would be useful; even mentioned such when we heard about the accident (while sitting comfortably in our camp). A few people who heard and took heed of the announcement came by and ended up throwing a tent down for the night. So a good idea is to listen to BMIR during exodus, especially before you are about to leave, so you have an idea what is going on.
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I know that physics are a reality, even at Burning Man, and only x amount of mass can flow through y. That said, 6 hours to leave left me wanting to never return. However, I, too, was unprepared for the Pulse. The ” one-hour neighborhood concept would have totally worked for me. WHAT IF there were indeed physical stations spaced every hour mark? An art piece; a bar; a performance; a game? Why should the creativity end when we pack up?!
Don
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447 bottleneck? Open the 12 mile gate for folks heading north on County Road 34 to Cedarville. Might take one quarter of the traffic out of the 447/Gerlach bottleneck.
Speeders in exit lanes? Stick with the vehicle next to you on exodus to discourage folks from weaving through lanes. Closing some exit lanes at non-peak times would also discourage speeding and weaving. Would take more monitoring and effort by the BORG but would result in a safer, more relaxed exodus.
Yay Kristy Evans! Dedicated Gate radio station! More reliable info about wait times on the radio, not just rumors. Good to know when pulsing is in effect, and when a lane is about to start!
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It seems to me it should be possible for BORG to use their $ & clout to arrange with BLM, NV state & local officials for faster egress, e.g.:
1. Special, fast exits for people going East on Jungo Rd.
2. Special, fast exits for people going North on County Rd. 34. Hwy 447 is faster, but if it would save somebody 4-6 hrs in egress, they’d do it. How to stop them from doing U-turns? I don’t know — roadblock, with registered license plates for people who got a special exit pass? If we can send a man to the moon …
3. No stop signs or other mandatory stopping . All intersections between BRC and HWY 80 staffed by law enforcement to keep the traffic flowing for 48 hours after The Burn. And, a roadblock on County Rd. 34 before the gate, so vehicles don’t come roaring past the gate, but get accumulated before the egress is stopped to let them through.
4. Special fast exits for people going WEST on Jungo Rd., on condition that they take the official “scenic route” around the west side of Pyramid lake. Would this conflict with #3? Not if they take some of the ~$20,000,000 gross and build a 1-lane overpass.
And, for ingress:
A. Hire (or reward) enough people to move people efficiently into BRC. I love the volunteerism of BRC, but, really, at this point if they don’t have enough volunteers it’s time to take care of business.
B. Have roving inspectors in the lines, who can check vehicles and give them a pass so they can roll right through the checkpoint.
C. Make welcoming by greeters optional. I love the greeters, but if it delays my getting into BRC by more than 1/2 hr, I’d like to pass it up.
Both directions — encourage pooling. The problem is the number of vehicles, not the number of people. If having 8 people together meant they just slid by everyone else, we’d figure out how to do that. People could consolidate their stuff into big trucks, and ride in vans or trains to the event. Or, add a charge at the gate for each vehicle.
I’m no expert, and don’t have to be to express an opinion here. If none of my ideas would work, others’ would. I am sure that if I came up with these ideas, others can too, and BORG can do a better job of this.
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The issue on entry and exit is that the number of vehicles exceeds by a huge margin the capacity of the road(s) to carry traffic. That is the math. So, here is my personal idea of doing a fix that can be done;
1. Entry: take a deep breath, entry was changed last year by a combination of NHP/NDOT from Sunday midnite to Sunday 6pm; this year it is Sunday 6pm; my suggestion open the gate at 12noon Saturday or midnite Friday, have the early-in starting the weekend before. The BORG could charge xtra for a paid early in, saturday to the sunday ‘official’ time;
2. Exit: this is the leap of faith, burn the man on friday night, this gives an extra day for exodus.
The above is not sexy, like pulsing, it is not the dream of telling law enforcement to make a 2-lane highway an expressway, especially when part of the road goes through a reservation, and keeps intact the route that most people used to get in. Given the number of vehicles per hour cannot be increased, you increase the time for the sub-events of entry and exit so that you spread out the entry and exit.
The only other fix-its are to cap the number of vehicles allowed onto the playa concurrent with a reduction in population – not a happy.
Remember, the BORG have to come up with a plan to get vehicles on in 3 hours or less, and off in 3 hours or less, why? maybe because they need a goal they make, an imposed one will not be pretty.
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Exodus took us 8+ hours last year. Fatigue sets in, even when you prepare for it, then you have a long drive to Reno after. 3 or so hours is one thing, but a system that takes 8+ just isnt working as it needs to, and Its very demoralizing. I have to admit, not sure the pulse totally helped during the peak of it all.
I think HOV exit lanes for buses and RVs carrying 6+ people would help, and incentivize less vehicles to be on playa to begin with. I know id sign up for a bus to reno from playa in a heartbeat if it could guarantee a short exodus departure.
dedicated rv lines for entrance is a great idea too, as is a “fast lane” at greeters for vets.
I also think a dedicated line for “fast pass” scheduled departures makes some sense to explore, though obviously plans change and there is only so much capacity. but any way to make people wait less in the heat, and be somewhere that isnt a bottleneck for longer, is worth exploring.
having multiple lanes moving fast for people who planned ahead or carpooled in a major way sure would be a motivator for folks waiting longer to change their plan for next year!
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And, if – gods forbid – it rains heavily on Sunday or Exodus Monday…
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BMIR- Burning Man Information Radio gives fairly accurate traffic reports. Listen for approximate wait times. Stay a day extra and help MOOP.
I also think possibly cars could be spot checked for stow a ways while waiting in line no more than 10 back… The windshield could be marked with one of those “car wash” markers as “Okayed” or a ” Fuck Yeah”…
Special thanks to the gate for all you do…
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It seems like you’ve got a ready made answer to a lot of the congestion in this week’s JRS. If the To Flame Bus (or any mass transit solution for that matter) had an express lane at Gate and Exodus, it seems pretty likely that a lot of smaller camps might choose to park in Reno and take the express rather than invest the time and gas money to get their cars up to the playa. If an art car shuttle system were in place to get from the BRC bus terminal to a camper’s campsite, you’d have a pretty solid, traffic-reducing start towards greening and speeding up the first and last days of the event. Even without that step, if the bus made designated stops at the major plazas along Geranium, that would pretty much get everybody close enough to where they need to be to offload their belongings and hitch a ride to their campsite.
I say this because I was just about to consider the To Flame Bus for myself but, if I’m going to be stuck in Exodus for 8 hours either way, I’d much rather have the convenience of an already packed car once I hit the highway. If the bus got me back to Reno several hours faster (hours that I could spend napping :) it’d be a no-brainer.
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In case anyone is wondering about Galstonbury, which has four entrances. From
http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/getting-here/by-car
“The worst times to leave by car are on Monday between 12 midnight and 1am and then between 9am and 5pm when there can be long delays of up to 9 hours to leave the car parks.”
It did rain on Monday (2010? or was it 2009?) and the entrance road was shut down for quite a while.
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I love a couple of these suggestions!
Yes, express lanes past the greeters.
Yes, open other roads heading north, west.
And it would be great if the powers that be would open both lanes of the access road to one-way traffic during exodus.
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I love pulsing. Way better than the slow crawl of death. I’d love to see pulsing on ingress too….
More portajohns would be nice.
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Why not burn the Temple at high noon on Sunday instead of at sunset?
And, what about the elephant in the room? County Rd 34 should be three lanes between the playa entrance and Gerlach. It’s a no brainer– exodus is a problem because the road is too narrow. How much would it cost to pave another lane from the access to Gerlach? Or, what about just paving a 1/2 or 1/4 mile merge lane?
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Thanks to everyone for being part of the conversation! Just a reminder to check out our FAQ page here: http://gate.burningman.com/faq-gate.php. It gives additional information about the most common suggestions we get, like why don’t we build another exit or why don’t we assign exit times.
We have been actively looking at many of the suggestions you have made here, such as bus carpools, changing the timeline of the event, and examining the surrounding roads. Many of these are multi-year proposals that involve significant legal, political and financial complexities.
And we also must consider how the 10 Principles and Burning Man culture affect or are affected by potential changes to the ingress and egress process. For example, if we assign entrance or exit times, how might it affect the Immediacy of and control over our own experiences? Burning Man isn’t just about the 8 days spent inside the trash fence. It is also very much about the journey, and it is through Communal Effort and Participation that we will most successfully address the traffic challenges facing this community.
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@Matt – Interestingly even something that seems as simple as paving a new portion of road is a very complex process. That would involve issues of land ownership, an environmental assessment, roads maintenance, and a whole County process. And in the end it would not solve the problem because you are still back down to one lane through Gerlach, which means you have just moved the merge point from the playa to the town.
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Professional transportation planner here. The key to reducing traffic congestion is to reduce the number of vehicles. Don’t think cycling to the playa is the safest solution so that pretty much leaves mass transit – i.e. buses. If each 52-seater coach can take say, 25 burners+gear, that’s the equivalent of approx 8 cars in the roadspace of 2 – a 75% reduction in traffic.
What we therefore need to do is find ways to persuade more people to use mass transit. Just like high occupancy vehicle lanes on the highway which give a benefit in return for ride sharing, why not have a high occupancy vehicle lane at gate/exodus to motivate people to take transit? There are buses to the burn being organised this year. If everyone knew in advance that buses (or say, any vehicle with 6+ people in it) would get to skip the queue, that would provide significant motivation to join up in a vehicle with others, which makes the queue shorter for everyone.
(declaration of vested interest: I’m taking one of the buses. BORG have so far said that they can’t queue jump. But as a professional, I believe BORG is missing a golden opportunity to cut down on traffic in future years by not letting high occupancy vehicles skip the queue)
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I understand that last year a car accident closed down the road to Reno for hours – this added to the delay for Exodus. That may have been the accident Irene was talking about. So sorry about your accident Irene and very glad you are Okay.
I had planned to stay until Tuesday anyway. Packed up Tuesday morning and drove out with “0” line “0” wait. So I highly recommend just hanging over one more night.
As for entry – the earliest I ever arrived was Tuesday, sometimes later in the week. The longest entry wait I have had was about 3 hours. I didn’t plan to come late – but it worked out that way for many reasons. So going from Tuesday to Tuesday might be an option for some.
This year however I do want to try getting in Sunday or Monday so will probably have a long wait, but still will leave on Tuesday.
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I used to volunteer for Exodus. I got a free ticket. Real cool. We are all certified with the State of Nevada as flaggers, and trained to implement safety and uniform proceedures.
I thought that everyone was on board and experienced traffic control at events like high school football games and concerts where the maximum amount of people are encouraged to enter the road,and the occasional cross traffic was required to stay put for a minute or two to wait for a break in traffic or for a few cars.
But this is just not true with exodus. We aren’t told this officially, but burningman has made an arrangement with someone of power to use the flaggers to avoid any inconvenience with local traffic. This means, that when a flagger sees an oncomming car moving in at 60 mph, they stop all exodus to the road so the speeding car can blow on through. This is the sad policy of exodus. They won’t admit it, but they can speed up exodus times tremendiously if they had managers with balls.
So I now stay late and help the camp pack up. Problem solved for me.
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My biggest issue is with the entrance. The exit is a physical limitation of the roadway. The entrance is MAN MADE and that is B.S.!
Has anyone noticed the railway that goes from Reno to Gerlach and along lake bed?
You can haul a lot of weight very cheaply on Rail!
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Build a simple RR stop on the border of the playa and charter a train from the east and west to stop there. Coordinate truck and container deliveries from key cities or get your freinds with RV to bring your stuff so that you can take the train.
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I might mention that I volunteered to work the entrance and was turned down! No kidding!
The more inspectors you have the faster the entrance the smaller the line!
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Please do a better job about educating people about pulse. This is my crews 5th year & I have no idea how we had had not heard of this.
Could we move the Temple Burn to Noon on Sunday?
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Please add more porta-potties to the exodus….If people get stuck in it 8+ hours like last year, there really needs to be more fully stocked porta-potties to accomodate such an extended stay on the way out.
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It wasn’t helpful to have BMIR announcers giving false information as to wait times during Mondays ingress last year.
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brilliant idea. looking forward to ALL of it!!
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