Heated sidewalks?

Among the more innovative ideas suggested by residents are geothermally heated sidewalks, photovoltaic pavement, smart parking meters, free WiFi and LED lighting.

Coun. Dave Lane said the redevelopment of Water Street is a good time to test or at least consider some of those ideas.

“The thermal sidewalks is a specific one, I’m really interested in that idea,” he said. “You can actually do a cost-benefit analysis on something like that. You can say, ‘Here’s how much it’ll cost us to install such a technology, and here ’ll be the cost of snow-clearing or whatever it is you’ll be saving that such a technology will help us with.”

Any savings provided a new technology can then help the city figure out how long it would take before something like a heated sidewalk has paid for itself.

“So I think we need to take some of these ideas seriously, and I think we also need to say, if you have an idea, what’s the purpose of it? What would be the benefit?”