Right!

I wasn't able to thoroughly cover as much ground by foot last year in the expanded BRC.

essentially, they took the 2007 city, removed the esplanade, and made the center bigger. The 2007 A street became the 2008 Esplanade, B became A, C became B and so on. They added one outer ring street so the actual number of streets were the same, they just started further out.

Now, and extra football field back from the original Esplanade didn't sound that big, but it combined with other factors to make the center seem gigantic. There seemingly was less stationary art last year, so you spent more time traveling in the deep playa from the nearest art to the nearest art. The ground conditions were incredibly tough. Big swaths of the deep playa had 'sand dunes' of playa dust that ranged from 4 inches to a foot deep. basically, nobody could cycle through these areas. The streets were soft, and the water trucks watered them, making them hard, but over the week the streets basically became giant pothole filled valleys.

I'm an avid cyclist in the non-BM season, and I had trouble biking around the city. I made it across town (from 9o'clock to 3o'clock) just once during the daytime.

Anyways, it was still worth the trip last year, but I'm super glad they're making it smaller this year.