Problems With Gifting A Ride

[Major Mallet]

I was wondering, is it still the case that if you arrive at the gate with a person who has an invalid ticket (fake, duplicate, etc.) that the gate staff will insist that you leave with the person and return them to Reno? If so, that seems like a big disincentive to gift a ride to someone you do not know. I would rather see them pull the person without the ticket from the line and offer them a ride back to Reno on the empty Burner Express buses. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm not sure what to do about it, but if someone pulled that on me they'd get a ride just out of Gerlach then get thrown out of the truck. There would be no ride all the way to Reno.

[Major Mallet]

I'm not sure what to do about it, but if someone pulled that on me they'd get a ride just out of Gerlach them get thrown out of the truck.

I was thinking along those lines myself. Radical Self-Reliance!

[Sham]

I was wondering, is it still the case that if you arrive at the gate with a person who has an invalid ticket (fake, duplicate, etc.) that the gate staff will insist that you leave with the person and return them to Reno? If so, that seems like a big disincentive to gift a ride to someone you do not know. I would rather see them pull the person without the ticket from the line and offer them a ride back to Reno on the empty Burner Express buses. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

My understanding is that they just won't let the person with a bad ticket in. They may be able to snag a ride with someone heading back to Reno. The real issues happen when the gate crew finds a stow-a-way. That's when the vehicle is turned around and all the occupants are sent home. If you're offering a ride, you may want to do this person a favor and just check to see if their ticket is a counterfeit.

[BBadger]

I do think you'll have to at least drive the person out of the event area because you can't just dump them and their shit and head on in without them. They'd definitely get dumped off in Gerlach though. Bad enough having to go through line again. Is it actually possible to get a quick response as to whether a ticket, in hand, or supposedly at Will Call is valid or exists at all?

On another note, I remember last year some idiot in line with some sign for a ticket. It looked like she was part of a larger group, given the size of the camper. This was during EE too, and wonder what happened to that person/group in the end, or if a ticket was really needed. Yeah, because people drive all the way to Burning Man with spare tickets to give away during EE.

[ygmir]

many of the people who are looking for tickets once on Gate road, or at Gate, are escorted out. It may take a while to get to them, depending on what else is happening, but they are not allowed to stand around once off the pavement, looking for tickets.

[Raoul]

It's an issue with EA passes also. Since those are sent as PDFs, it would be even more difficult to confirm their validity if gifting a ride to someone.

We had 3 or 4 random folks knock on our window on Gate road on Saturday asking if we had any extras we could spare. It was rumored that one of the reasons for the ridiculous line on Saturday (in addition to the dust storms) was that there were several large vehicles (RVs, box trucks, etc.) that had to be turned away due to not having enough EA passes for everyone in their groups.

[trilobyte]

Yes, if all the passengers in a vehicle do not have tickets, the entire vehicle will be turned around. This is a great reason why a driver should double-check to make sure that any passengers either have physical tickets in hand, or a printout of will call information with matching ID.

And on the early arrivals side, all passengers must their own valid/unique early arrivals pass *for that date* (early arrivals passes are marked with the date they are approved for arrival). If somebody's got either a bogus pass, or their pass is not valid on that date (you arrive Thursday and somebody's pass isn't good til Saturday, for example)... then the entire vehicle gets turned around. A great reason why a driver should check the EA passes for all passengers, too, and make sure everyone understands that EA barcodes are unique and single-use (once scanned at the gate the barcode may not be re-used by someone else).

And on the stowaway front, any vehicle found to be carrying stowaways will have tickets and vehicle pass confiscated from all the vehicle's passengers, vehicle details taken down, and the entire vehicle turned around and sent away (the vehicle will not be allowed re-entry even with a different driver or fresh vehicle pass). This is a great reason why drivers should never consider taking stowaways, and why camps should make sure that the people hauling their gear are trustworthy and reliable.

[ZigZag]

The risk for allowing a stowaway seems so high, its hard to believe anyone would do that. But people are people I guess.

Any idea how many stowaway turnarounds Gate has to do over the course of the event? Is it tens? Is it hundreds?

[Rice]

The risk for allowing a stowaway seems so high, its hard to believe anyone would do that. But people are people I guess.

Any idea how many stowaway turnarounds Gate has to do over the course of the event? Is it tens? Is it hundreds?

That information is not published.