Burning Man Shuttle Bus
The Burning Man Shuttle
Bus to Gerlach and Empire was well utilized in its second year of
serving the citizens of Black Rock City. The bus service is intended to
provide burners a way to get into the town of Gerlach and the Empire store
without driving their vehicle. This year the Shuttle ran very much like
last year, and with the same manager, so things went quite smoothly during
the four days of operation. The busses were on schedule all week, and
there were no reports of incidents or customer dissatisfaction.
The shuttle bus was publicized this year with a few pre-recorded public
service announcements on the Black Rock City radio stations. Even so,
there did not seem to be much unnecessary use of the shuttle. Many people
learned about the service when inquiring at Playa Info about how to make
a phone call, or about in-out privileges to get to a store.
Improvements in this year's Burning Man Shuttle Bus included the
following:
- The DPW built and painted a ticket booth that can be
reused in years to come. Large, colorful signs were painted to draw
attention to both the ticket booth and the bus stop. (Note* The ticket
booth needed a counter built on the inside for the ticket window,
so the DPW was called on Monday and one was built on Tuesday. The
DPW rules!)
- Playa Info was well informed of our schedule and volunteer
needs a few days before our operation took flight. They were able
to direct a few walk-up volunteers on Tuesday to help get signs painted
for the ticket booth and bus stop. They were also able to locate a
few volunteers for the ticket booth when we were short handed on two
occasions.
- Money handling procedures were simplified this year so managers
and cashier office people did not have to meet as often.
- The volunteers
who signed up were tremendous. There were 20 people scheduled to cover
11 three-hour time slots. Two volunteers worked at every shift. Three
of the volunteers worked two shifts and the other 17 worked one. There
were only two no-shows all week.
There were a lot of passengers on Wednesday morning, several of them
had been waiting since Tuesday. The only other real busy time was mid-day
on Friday. The busses held 45 people, so a few bus runs were full, but
most had plenty of breathing room.
The ticket booth located just behind Playa Info in Center Camp. The
staffing for the booths was a volunteer team assembled completely over
the internet. There were no pre-playa meetings required. Two volunteers
manned the ticket booth at all times (almost). The Bus Stop was right
across the street on Lover at Finger Ring. Its large shade structure with
many benches was very well utilized this year. The bike racks located
at the bus stop were also well utilized this year. Many thanks to the
DPW building crew. 