DPW looking for people to come get some bikes.

[EGAZ]

Copy paste of this thread. However no contact info for DPW was posted.

FREE BICYCLES. PLEASE. MUST TAKE IN BULK, IMMEDIATELY. Are you an organization that wants to help receive and redistribute a bunch of bikes left behind at Burning Man this year? There's finally too many for our ranks to handle.

repost from auntie social: Opportunity for any peeps!! Thousands of bicycles have been abandoned at BRC this year. The current network who pick up these abandoned bicycles and repurpose them cannot handle the dramatic increase. Want to save dozens, hundreds, to thousands of usable bicycles from going to a SCRAPPER!? If you can make it here with a large trailer within three days please help take some before they go to the scrapper. (Please contact before departing/arriving.)

Black Rock City beside Gerlach, NV

[FIGJAM]

I think they said 5000 bikes were left on playa.

70,000 divided by 5000 = 14.

So one out of every 14 people left a bike on the playa...........GREAT!!!

[Token]

So one out of every 14 people left a bike on the playa...........GREAT!!!

That assumes everyone brought a bike which I find suspect. Lots don't bother.

I'm thinking 10% at least.

Either way, it is a fully predictable clusterfuck.

[JayBobBoy]

Seems to be a direct correlation to how much easier the BMORG is making it to get to the festival. With busses and airports ferrying in thousands, Token is right, a totally predictable clusterfuck.

The entitled masses are taking over the playa and don't give a shit about your 10 principles, at least when they are inconvenient.

Are $20 bike permits too far away?

[Admiral Fukkit]

Didn't we have a big shit storm last year about all those bikes being "lost", not abandoned, and that it was theft to take any of them?

[Token]

Didn't we have a big shit storm last year about all those bikes being "lost", not abandoned, and that it was theft to take any of them?

Yeah but that was Sparr ...

[Krokodyle]

I think they said 5000 bikes were left on playa.

70,000 divided by 5000 = 14.

So one out of every 14 people left a bike on the playa...........GREAT!!!

Dang...this just makes me sick.

It would not surprise me to see bicycle permits become a reality.

[mudpuppy000]

That sucks. I could have taken a couple extra home if there had been some way to coordinate it.

I don't think I've ever heard so many screetching janky bikes on the playa. I wonder if a lot of these are recycled ones from years past that got sold for cheap/dumped.

[TT120]

Didn't we have a big shit storm last year about all those bikes being "lost", not abandoned, and that it was theft to take any of them?

Yes we did. A big fuckin shit storm. I'm wondering if this isn't a weak attempt to entrap people into stealing bikes.

[FIGJAM]

For the last 7 years that I've been, the policy has been "Don't take ANY bike that isn't yours at the end of the event". Even repair camps that loan bikes get stopped on exodus for suspected bike theft. This can seem like a mixed mesage, but the bottom line is "You brought it in, you take it out".

[some seeing eye]

2016 Census: 20% country of residence outside the USA. They probably didn't bring a bike to/from on the plane.
Add flew in from US city - that's about another 15%.

Burner Bus 2015: ~7000, Burner Air 2015: ~2300 - both will be up by 2017.

2016 virgins ~28,000

Not that each above group are bad burners, but that the percentage of irresponsible burners in various groups eventually add up to a problem is no surprise. No doubt an appeal to "the community" will soon be announced...

Once the population cap lifts, the refuge bikes likely will too.

(How was moop in 2017?)
(Why is ePlaya propose "Are Burners: Dog People or Cat People or Other?" is a similar topic? That's what I want to know, not something obvious.)

[fireheadwhale]

How many were stolen/borrowed for a single errand and then abandoned during the event? And perhaps there are serial bike borrowers who grab one or two everyday. Last year, I saw a young man ride up to the Burn, on Burn Night, drop the bike he was riding and walk away with not a glance back. Thought to myself,"He stole that bike to get to the Burn". Or there are people who ride a Yellow bike somewhere, park it, and then when it's transferred, need one to ride back to camp. I saw a young lady walk into a camp asking for water and that is what happened to her. Although she was doing the honorable thing and walking back to her camp.
I'm not proud of this but at least two times in my youth I did something like this("borrowed a bike"). Once when I was running late for a train and once I was too lazy to walk somewhere. I haven't done it in 40 years. I'm now a reformed bike thief.

I picture a bad actor telling his friend,"You don't have to bring a bike, it's easy enough to grab one".

[Traveller in Time]

Seems to be a direct correlation to how much easier the BMORG is making it to get to the festival. With busses and airports ferrying in thousands, Token is right, a totally predictable clusterfuck.
...
Are $20 bike permits too far away?

And at the Gate a welding station tagging any bicycle with name and camp.

[Admiral Fukkit]

You're joking right..

[Token]

TiT is officially our



of ePlaya.

[Dr Helix]

Three years ago my wife and I were cruising the playa Monday afternoon in our little art car. We were amazed at the number of bikes left abandoned on the playa. Since we had a small flatbed trailer, we thought we might help by picking up some of the bikes and taking them to DPW where we had heard you should go. Bad idea. We were chewed out by a bunch of folks who basically accused us stealing, even as we tried to explain. They finally did listen and grudgingly took them from us. So when I read this topic I laughed out loud. Looks like there's more bikes than anyone wants to handle now.

[Jackass]

I was there until Tuesday again this year and would have taken some bikes at that time, but now I'm home, along with damn near everyone else.

[Savannah]

I was there until Tuesday again this year and would have taken some bikes at that time, but now I'm home, along with damn near everyone else.

YES. I happily would've collected some bikes myself! I saw more than I'd ever seen before as I was leaving Tuesday morning . . . the amount of theft and abandonment it implied was a bit sickening.

Alas, the official policy posted online has not (yet) changed.

4. Leave any bike that is not yours (except for Yellow Bikes) where it is. Either the owner will return, or BRPT will collect it and process it through lost and found.

source: https://burningman.org/culture/history/ ... dpw/bikes/

I hope that DPW's call to come retrieve bikes will be substantiated, that at least someone out there--whether charity or rental service--will make out like a bandit, and that the policy will change. In my personal opinion, it might be time to consider making unlocked bikes that are still in Black Rock City come 12:01am Tuesday post-event should be considered free for adoption.

[Jackass]

The outside services camp was on the next block, they had no problem with hoarding 200-300 select bikes...

[EGAZ]

I had two bikes dumped in my camp. One from a lady who was looking for her husband. We gave her some water, chatted for a bit and then her husband arrived. They walked off arm in arm. I asked if she forgot about her bike she road up on. "No", she said, you can have it...............??????????? WT?????????? The other was there when I woke up Monday morn. I have both of them now. Would have taken a half dozen more as I had room. As far as I'm concerned anything left laying around after midnight Sunday night after the temple burn, is fair game. I will be grabbing more next year......

[some seeing eye]

Perhaps someone can give an authoritative answer -

Does BMORG expend any effort on playa or off playa to return any bikes?

It's odd given the heroic efforts to return other items.

The main portal for found is Playa info that only accepts small items - https://lnf.burningman.org/items/ - no bikes. Then it doesn't appear any effort is spent by DPW or anyone to return any bikes to owners, notify camps or check the standard stolen bike registries. Grumpy much? Fuk your burn and fuk your bike because you are fuking my teardown/resto? Maybe just a difference in cultures between departments.

Do-ocracy comes down to use a lock and don't bring good stuff you can't afford to lose.

[Ratty]

.

[Molotov]

As far as I'm concerned anything left laying around after midnight Sunday night after the temple burn, is fair game. I will be grabbing more next year......

I concur. This is the only way we can begin to counter mass dumping of bikes, camp supplies, and other reusable items. Unless the Borg steps up to the plate and institutes a realistic program of bike-owner reunification (which ain't gonna happen) this problem is going to continue to get worse. Dumping a $98 Walmart bike on the playa or a couple of brand new ice chests, rather that finding a way to donate them or get them home is considered a cost of doing business to some burners. If you already spent $1500 to get a ticket and travel to Burning Man, losing an inexpensive bike is small potatoes.....

[Jackass]

Do people that ride in on the BxB and pay to bring a bike in, have to pay extra for the bike to get in on the ride out?

If that's the case, it's probably cheaper to leave the bike behind...

[cammi051]

I took the Burner Express home and they only charge once for the bikes. So if you have a round trip on burner express it only costs $25 to take your bike there and back.

[BBadger]

Even if taking the bike back is free it may still not be worth the effort to the individual to bother bringing the bike back to the bus. The service caters to people who lack transportation means in the first place. Disposing of a bike after returning to the default world is probably an inconvenience many would rather not deal with.

Perhaps greater penalties should be imposed on BxB folk who bring a bike and do not return with it. Sure, someone may get their bike stolen and get penalized twice, but as we've seen above, the impact of not locking a bike up and getting it stolen goes beyond just the owner losing transportation at the event. Lock that shit up and bring your bike back home.

[some seeing eye]

A Reno nonprofit has had a free bike donation drop off for the Reno BxBus at the unload point since 2014. No excuses.

Not sure what should be collected at the BRC airport from outgoing. Headdresses and dusty footwear? Actually that might not be a bad collection point for the on-playa costume cults...

Pretty secure U-locks have dropped in price over the years - they are ~$10.

[motskyroonmatick]

All the years of people getting dragged over the coals for taking clearly abandoned bikes or even hauling out the bikes they loaned people through their camp and ..... I guess I am finding the polar shift a bit messed up. If I'd known I could have hi graded that bike pile as I left I would have.

[gaminwench]

The report from BRC is that almost all of the bikes are gone now.
Yay for local burners going back out to get those things off the playa.

[Bless]

It seems like there's a relatively simple policy that BMORG could adopt to address the issue: after 1 pm on Monday (after the burn), any bikes left unattended are fair game for removal by anyone leaving the playa.