GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN — Trains and trams, bikes and buses. Electric ferries too. The delegation of Maryland officials in Sweden this week used them all.

The weeklong trip has been an exercise in using sustainable transportation, something that’s readily available in the two Swedish cities visited — Stockholm and Gothenburg — but not nearly as much in Anne Arundel County.

On Friday, the delegation’s final full day in Gothenburg, lessons on ways to move sustainably filled every meeting. The visitors viewed plans for electrification of land transportation methods in Sweden’s second-largest city and examined new marine technologies that make performance improvements while reducing fuel consumption.

“Sustainable travel is the norm, and this is our vision,” said Lisa Walldal, the deputy business manager for Västtrafik, the public transport agency for Gothenburg and Västra Götaland County. “We want people to travel with us because they want to, not because they have to.”

Could it become the norm for transportation methods in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, too?

Rob Savidge, an Annapolis City Council alderman representing Ward 7, wants people to not be as reliant on automobiles.

“We don’t even have sidewalks along all of our streets,” he said. “We really need to just diversify, and that’s really, I think, what this is all about — giving people more choice and frankly, more and more freedom as far as how they want to get around the city.”

Looking at where Annapolis can add more sidewalks and cycling lanes, slow down car traffic and alter parking requirements, as well as setting aside money to invest in such projects, are part of the solution, he said.

But it’s also not the only way to achieve less reliance on the top form of transportation in Maryland. Changes in behavior, like breaking the habit of getting in the car, are needed, too, he said.

A passenger ferry system, something that’s being considered now following the release of a feasibility study in August, could also be part of the solution for implementing sustainable travel, both for commuters and tourists. Anne Arundel County recently received nearly $3.9 million in federal grant funding to purchase two electric ferries.

While it’s not clear if the full buildout of a future passenger ferry system would only involve electric vessels, seeing these types of boats showed that the application of such a system, as well as the length and speed of ferry trips, are determining factors for it being sustainable, said Kristen Pironis, the executive director of Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.

“I think something that switched in my head being here is people want to be sustainable because it’s the right thing to do. But I think what this trip illustrated to me [is] it’s not just the right thing to do — there’s a business model for it,” she said. “I think the business model has to work for the sustainability side of things.”

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