At-large City Councilor Steve Murphy, one of five candidates for the four at-large seats open in Tuesday's election, continues to bang the drum for a privately funded solar-powered monorail between North and South stations.
The council as a whole today approved his resolution urging the legislature to get off its duff and approve a bill that would clear the way for these "solar personal transportation systems" that he says would reduce our carbon footprint and, by being privately funded, add new transit at a time the T is massively in debt.
But while the council voted unanimously for his resolution, no other councilors rose to say anything in favor of it.
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Monorail
By cybah
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 1:33pm
[img] http://replygif.net/i/692.gif [/img]
I really wonder who's idea this REALLY is? (aka meaning someone's getting a kick back from him)
Cui bono
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:24pm
Well for starters the rose kennedy greenway which I'm sure would lease the land to the private developer, and the construction company which has been already determined I'm guessing, so now it's just a matter of the right handshakes and butt kisses to pass this borguise folly through.
How about not having an
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 1:57pm
How about not having an election every two years and using the money for school, public safety and substance abuse. Every 2 years it cost the taxpayers over a half a million dollars to run these city council elections. Have the city council a 4 year term starting in 2017 as Andrew Cousino suggested when he ran for Boston City Council back in 2013.
How about we rethink the
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:52pm
How about we rethink the whole strong mayor/ weak city council system and come up with a representative power structure the works better and costs less?
Or
By Waquiot
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:58pm
We could vote for our City Council when we vote for Congress and members of the General Court.
Personally, I like the habit of going to my local polling station on the first Tuesday in November, but I see the economic point. I don't quite get this idea that City Council should be elected every 4 years while State Senators and Congressmen run every 2. If you want to save money, keep the term and change the election years. Going by Cousino's figures, we'd save a million every 4 years.
So, It Would Be Useless After Dark?
By Elmer
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:23pm
Of course not
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:25pm
It's still sunny on the other side of the globe at night - we'll just get some extension cords.
Extension cords are a great idea.
By Boston_res
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:26pm
I myself prefer cordless extension cords.
Not exactly.
By Boston_res
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:26pm
Solar panels charge batteries. From there it either remains DC (just like all batteries), or is run through an inverter to become AC.
For something like this though, I can imagine the project needing lots and lots of solar panels.
Not at all.
By Rob
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 4:30pm
Not at all.
By my calculations, all we would need to do is take every street lamp along the route, install a 3-foot diameter hemisphere under the lamp, lined with photovoltaic panels.
Of course, that would block all light from those lamps to the sidewalks and streets below. To solve that, we'd install a new lamp on the bottom of each hemisphere, powered from the panels inside.
To make up for that power drain, we'd install a second hemisphere (about 3.5 foot diameter) concentrically mounted around the same center point as the first.
Of course, that would block all light from those lamps to the sidewalks and streets below. To solve that, we'd install a new lamp on the bottom of each hemisphere, powered from the panels inside.
To make up for that power drain, we'd install a third...
.
.
.
...install a new lamp on the bottom of the 14 foot hemisphere, powered from the panels inside.
Finally - to leave enough vertical clearance for street and sidewalk traffic, we'd replace the current standard 16-foot streetlamp poles with 39-foot streetlamp poles.
...
By Boston_res
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 9:17am
Brilliant!
Not just after dark
By Phil Hartman
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 11:10am
But useless all around the clock. Just like the rest of the T.
Where will the solar panels go?
By Boston_res
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:23pm
I ask because they'll have to be pretty large. We're not exactly trying to power a low energy calculator or dancing flower here.
On top of the Olypmic stadium
By downtown-anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:17pm
Got to monetize the thing.
On Murph's
By bulgingbuick
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 8:18am
head.
Maybe he can go work for the
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:31pm
Maybe he can go work for the company after Anissa replaces him on the city council on Tuesday.
Is Anissa the "taxpayers" choice?
By bulgingbuick
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 8:20am
Someone is taking Boston voters for granted.
Above ground transportation through the city?
By Michael_
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 2:37pm
Above ground transportation through the city after spending all that money putting traffic through the city underground?
Not Exactly
By BostonDog
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 6:16pm
While it might be possible to put the monorail at street level this would block the cross streets and the park itself. So to simplify and streamline the system they should create some sort of elevated platform which could hold the tracks.
This is a great idea. I'm surprised no one had thought of it previously.
You're joking, right?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 9:13am
I mean, it isn't a monorail, but this elevated line was in service between North and South stations for several decades (even after a wreck shut the extended parts of the line).
[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJAFkKOlINk/TktEOlg2ujI/...
The Atlantic Avenue Elevated Railway.
Any way to know who's winning the election?
By aldos
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:01pm
I don't suppose they do polling on this sort of thing? Just curious if this guy is a shoo-in to be on the council going forward, or if he's on the outside looking in and trying to promote himself.
He is going to lose his seat
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:02pm
He is going to lose his seat to Anissa
Source?
By aldos
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:48pm
What makes you say that?
Because it doesn't take a
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 4:35pm
Because it doesn't take a political expert to see Murphy usually just makes it by the skin of his teeth. He usually runs for a different office every few years. Each year the city is more and more made up of minorities in which a quite of few of them just vote for a candidate because they are told to do so or just vote for them because they are female or a minority. They don't even have a clue why else they vote for someone.
Shocker you didn't put your name on your comment
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 7:02pm
those gosh darn minorities voting for people they're told to vote for by... people. Thank god no-one would ever impugn the good name of Irish Americans by implying that they simply vote for other Irish Americans, right?
As one of those people who
By SHABAZZ X
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 8:53pm
As one of those people who you believe are just "told" to vote for someone, I'm proud to say I'll be voting for her out of the free will that I believe you don't think folks like me actually have.
Small sample size
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:19pm
100% of the people in my household who answered a CPP phone survey today stated they were voting Wu, Presley, Flaherty and Anissa (who's last name I can't remember and didn't google.)
Essabi George
By ElizaLeila
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 5:25pm
nt
Close
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 6:44pm
Essaibi-George
Yeah, all the incumbents.
By anon
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 10:07pm
Yeah, all the incumbents. Nothing ever changes. Above post is right have the city council seat a 4 year term along with voting for Mayor
So
By Waquiot
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 11:02pm
Letting them do whatever they want for 4 years between elections will somehow make them more accountable? That's some weird ass calculus.
Is there a chance the track
By h00ks
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:13pm
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life
By PharmaGuy
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:22pm
My Hindu friend.
I call the big one bitey
By Boss-J
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 11:42pm
I call the big one bitey
Leave Lyle Lanley alone!
By PharmaGuy
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 3:21pm
This worked for North Haverbrook and they aren't even a world class Olympic city like Boston. #monorail2024
Why did the MBTA
By anon
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 6:58pm
stop running ads about riding the commuter rail for free between North and South Stations?
They had ads about this on the Red and Orange Lines around 2008-2009.
Because you can't?
By adamg
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 8:53pm
How exactly would you get from one station to the other by commuter rail?
Do you mean free rides
By Zabdiel Boylston
Wed, 10/28/2015 - 10:17pm
Do you mean free rides between South Station and Back Bay? I personally don't know of any advertising in 08-09 (since I moved here in late 09) but that's the only thing I can think of that they don't really advertise anymore but you can definitely still do.
You mean
By Kevin M
Thu, 10/29/2015 - 9:32am
I think you mean ads for South Station to Back Bay for free on the Commuter Rail. I remember those. It was good when the Orange Line was a mess. Which is well 30% of the time anyways.
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