Ogden Public Transit Redux: More Info Re Monday's WACOG Meeting

The public transit predicament approaches information overload

On the heels of Tuesday's Weber County Forum discussion, we've received additional information about Monday's WACOG meeting, during which Weber State University students asked the Weber Area Council of Governments to fund a study to determine whether a streetcar or bus rapid transit (BRT) should be the transit system linking downtown Ogden to WSU and McKay Dee Hospital. Boss Godfrey of course told the WACOG panel that he opposes the $200,000 city expenditure for a mass transit alternatives analysis because development of a streetcar system between downtown and Weber State University is "too expensive."

Mainly for the sake of continuity, we link yesterday's Scott Schwbke story on this same topic. Although this story adds little to the fact scenario already provided in Kristen Moulton's Tuesday article, there is one tantalizing nugget of new information, appearing midway through Ace Reporter Schwebke's writeup:

"There are some advanced streetcar-like technologies that could possibly be used between downtown and Weber State and McKay-Dee, Godfrey said."

Whereas Kristen's story had left us with the impression that Godfrey had been intentionally vague in his reference to "other [transit] methods," (leaving us to conclude he was still holding out for gondolas), Schebke's story adds an element we hadn't heard before: "advanced streetcar-like technologies."

Is it possible that he's referring to something like this?

Has Boss Godfrey suddenly beaten his obsession with gondolas, and opened his mind to rational and proven public transit alternatives? Only time will tell. We suppose we'll have to wait until the council work session on May 15, when all will be revealed -- we hope.

We're also pleased to provide two other useful reader resources this morning:

First, Gentle Reader Dan S. has graciously provided us an mp3 audio recording of Monday's WACOG session, in which our readers can hear the dulcet voice of Boss Godfrey, hemming and hawing at his very best.

Second, Dan has also forwarded a copy of a letter he sent to the Weber County Commission, containing an annotated transcript (with commentary) of Godfrey's portion the Monday WACOG proceeding.

Comments, anyone?