Get there green–Bio fuel airport shuttle, and much more

bcp2

OK, sometime while I was sleeping the kids over at the Burn Clean Project sneaked into the workshop and cranked out an amazing web page, crammed with ways to Green Your Burn. Their latest addition? A BIODIESEL AIRPORT SHUTTLE BUS. How. great. is. that? Catch a ride from the Reno Airport or Amtrak station straight to the playa cruising on clean, green biodiesel. But wait, it gets better: first they take you to Wild Oats to buy nice, tasty, healthy ( and we’ll admit, hella expensive ) food for your week in the desert.

But wait, there’s more. Don’t want to ride with them? No problem–their site outlines just about every way to get to the playa that’s just a little bit greener; they’ve even figured out how long it will take to walk, for crying out loud.

Very cool site, very nice folks, shameless snag of a lot of their content after the jump.

green tortoise

The legendary Green Tortoise bus will make two trips from San Francisco to the playa in 2007. The fees include all meals in Black Rock City as well as drinking water. No showers, but hey, you can always shower with a friend at their camp… a spectacular way to conserve water.

TRAIN

Get as many of your burner friends as possible to book for the same time and make it a PARTY TRAIN. Hay-ay. Ship your bulky items weeks before on a friend’s truck or your nearest big city shipping container, then pack a small bag and hop on the train to Reno. The cost to your wallet is low low low and the cost to the planet is the least emissions per mile when compared against other fossil-fuel burning options.

One Way Rates to Reno…San Francisco: $44 , 7.5 hrs. LA: $71, 12 hrs. Portland: $91, 19.5 hrs. NYC: 72 hrs, $154. Get picked up at the train station by BCP’s BIOBUS (space) SHUTTLE.

CAR

ride

The Burning Man rideshare board is an incredible way to connect with burners all over the country headed your way at your time. Check it out.

rent

Bio-Beetle rents biodiesel VW Beetles and EV Car Rental with a 100% Hybrid fleet, both located in LA. Check out the National Biodiesel Board for fueling station locations.
Fox Rent A Car has hybrids available at some of their locations. When you call Fox, feel free to discourage their rentals of Hummers at some locations. We’ve never tried it ourselves but apparently Toyota will rent hybrids, though returning a playa-fied car to a dealership seems pretty funny, you’re welcome to test the possibility for us…make sure to report results to connect@burncleanproject.com!

Betterworld Club’s got you covered for roadside assistance, auto insurance, and discounts on hybrid rentals.

If you must rent a car rather than rideshare and there are no biodiesel or hybrid rentals available in your departure city, make sure to request one anyway. our collective customer voice can make a difference.

drive

Make sure to fill all the spots in your car with people; carpooling is great. Also, remember that it is much more fuel efficient to buy food and water in Reno than to haul it from over yonder.

For all your biodiesel fueling needs, check out the BIOFUELS section for the lowdown on how to get to the playa using veggie power.

PLANE

Consider offsetting your flight by booking on Expedia.com and adding a Terrapass to your flight charges. Offset a short haul flight for $5.99 and a long haul flight for $16.99 by scrolling down through the “activities” screen that follows the booking of your flight. Look for “flight accessories” and click on Terrapass.

BIKE

Biking to Black Rock is a great way to get your bicycle there without having to strap it to anything. An experienced cyclist could make it in under two days. Make sure to take a bicycle repair kit. Transform your bike into the true road warrior that she is with a S.U.B. (Sport Utility Bicycle) kit from Xtracycle. If you don’t want to pedal the entire way, check out the pricey but extremely innovative E-V Sunny Solar Electric Bicycle from our friends in Canada. Let us know if you have links to any great routes for cyclists to BRC at connect@burncleanproject.org. You will be a trailblazer for low impact travel to Black Rock.

WALK

People walk at an average of 4.5 feet per second. Reno to BRC is 124 miles, which takes approximately 40.4 hours. If you’re experienced hiker, this could make for a phenomenal hiking and camping trip through the desert. This is the lowest impact form of travel possible. You will be a living legend in the Burning Man community. Check out this map of a trail from Reno to Black Rock from the Desert Survivors website. If you plan on walking to BRC or have done so in the past, please send us your story, connect@burncleanproject.org.

About the author: Tom Price

Tom Price

Tom Price is the former Executive Director of Black Rock Solar. Prior to that he was the Environmental Manager for Burning Man during the Green Man theme, and was in the Gulf Coast for six months during the genesis of Burners Without Borders. He's been attending Burning Man since 1997, and he's proud to say that his decade plus streak of breaking down from sun stroke on the playa on day three remains intact.