It's more of a Shelbyville idea.

Every now and then I read something in The Daily about building a monorail between Central Campus and North Campus. Building a monorail is one of the more idiotic things I've ever read in the Daily. Not only would it be less efficient than the current bus system, it would also be more expensive and downright infeasible. Here's why.

1) A monorail would only have a few select stops, probably just at CC Little, and Pierpont Commons. Maybe one more on the hill. This mean that students would still have to take a bus to get to the monorail.

2) You still have to wait for a monorail. Any monorail would be 1 straight track and not a loop for obvious reasons (costs). Therefore the monorail would get to CC Little and reverse direction, meaning only one car can be on the track at a time (or else they would hit each other). So the monorail would only come by every 5 minutes or so which is the same frequency as the Bursley-Baits buses arrive.

3) You would still need a fleet of buses. Nurses who park at Mitchell Field and Glazier Way still have to get to work. People who live in Baits or not near a monorail stop would still have to take a bus to get to the monorail, and then another bus to get from the monorail to their destination.

4) Monorails can't go through buildings. There is a hospital and about 5 dorms in between CC Little and Pierpont Commons, and I wouldn't want to live in a room with a train flying by my window every 5 minutes.

5) Monorails have to be level. In between North and Central Campuses is a Huron Valley. The track would have to be a few hundred feet in the air above Fuller road.

6) Monorails are expensive compared to buses. They are expensive to build and maintain and unless students would be willing to pay to ride a monorail I would doubt the University would ever build one.

7) Monorails need a maintenance building that would have to be built somewhere.

8) Monorails are an eyesore and would look horrible in Ann Arbor.

9) A monorail would have to support people with disabilities. Wheelchair passengers would probably have a hard time using the system.

10) Monorails have no way to evacuate in case of emergency. If there was a malfunction there would be no way to evacuate people from a monorail 300 feet above fuller road.

11) The bus driver union would be pissed if you tried to cut jobs.

12) Monorails can get just as crowded as buses.

The current bus system works well and while crowded gets people where they would like to go in an expedient manner. A monorail wouldn't be the elixir to the transportation problem at the University, and would most likely be a failed proposition.