More than two months have passed since a delegation of Maryland officials returned from a research trip to Sweden, and Annapolis officials are continuing to look at the lessons learned overseas and ways to bring them back home.

The 20-person delegation’s weeklong trip to Sweden this fall included presentations on sustainability, and talks on climate policy, clean transit options, waste management and green building solutions. The trip came a year after Annapolis officials traveled to the Netherlands to study resilience infrastructure, flood defenses and alternative transportation methods to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Coming home, however, meant figuring out how to fund and make sustainable living possible. In Annapolis, city officials who went on the trip are now acknowledging what needs to be done to achieve those goals.

Making that happen is a three-pronged endeavor, according to Rob Savidge, the Ward 7 alderman on Annapolis City Council who shared lessons learned in the Netherlands and Sweden with area residents Monday evening. It includes working with tourism and economic development officials to integrate sustainability into the city, as well as doubling down on efforts to become carbon neutral and moving toward a fully electric public transportation system.

“We can do this, and we need to do this,” he said. “Sweden really shows us the way, but I think so does our past.”

Ferries, for example, used to run from Annapolis to the Eastern Shore. An electric streetcar at one point ran on the streets of Annapolis, Savidge said.

“They had better interconnected transportation than we have today,” he said.

One thing the Democratic alderman wants to pursue is a feasibility study to see if streetcars should come back to Annapolis for people looking to get around town.

Sweden has high ridership rates for its public transit, Savidge said. While in Stockholm and Gothenburg, the delegation used multiple forms of sustainable transit, including trains, trams, bikes, buses and electric ferries.

The city is planning to roll out its first two all-electric buses next spring, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said Monday. Plans to launch a small electric passenger ferry to run between City Dock and Eastport are underway, as well, and Savidge is working on legislation to transition all city transportation to electric.

The area Savidge represents also has a large population of older residents, he said, making expansion of mobility options even more crucial.

“I think it’s important as people age that they have other options, because they may age out of driving,” he said. “So, we need to make sure that they still have the ability to get around town.”

At the same time, Savidge and Buckley are looking at making portions of downtown Annapolis car-free on certain days, such as during Midnight Madness, when area businesses stay open late for holiday shopping.

“When you open up streets to pedestrians, you get more business because people shop, cars don’t shop,” Savidge said, adding it could boost the economy and tourism.

Outside of the downtown area, Savidge hopes to explore solutions to improve traffic along Forest Drive, labeled in Annapolis’ comprehensive plan as the city’s most dangerous roadway. Transit, he said, might be the only solution for the heavily traveled corridor, though it will require working with Anne Arundel County.

Improving the way Annapolis builds sustainably is also a goal, Savidge said. Though the city has a green building code, he hopes to place more of an emphasis on reuse and renovation — something officials saw in practice in Stockholm.

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