Now that Boss Godfrey has returned from his European Street Car Study Junket, he's started talking about his findings. To our good fortune, reporters from the Standard-Examiner made themselves available to take notes. Here's the gist from this morning's Scott Schwebke/Mitch Shaw story:
OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey says a whirlwind tour earlier this month of six European cities gave him insight into cutting edge streetcar technology that could benefit Ogden."Eliminate the need for unsightly overhead lines?" Quite a transformation, we think, for the "visionary" little feller who only last year still "envisioned" this ghastly monstrosity as the most desirable (and visually prominent) feature to be added to the future Emerald City streetscape. That's a step in the right direction... we think. There's nothing like a trip through the old cities of Europe, of course, to provide even a rube from Harrisville, Utah a new appreciation of the inherent value and wisdom of clean aesthetics.
The trip from Dec. 9-16 took Godfrey to Vienna, Austria; Munich, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland, and the French cities of Nice, Bordeaux and Paris. [...]
The most unique streetcar system with possible applications for Ogden was found in Bordeaux, Godfrey said.
Instead of overhead lines, the Bordeaux operation is powered by a pedestrian-safe electric supply system buried in the ground, according to American Public Transportation’s Web site at www.apta. com.
The system could be beneficial to Ogden because it would eliminate the need for unsightly overhead lines and the price would likely be no more than 3 percent higher than a conventional streetcar system, said Godfrey.
“I definitely want something wireless and this is the best technology I’ve seen,” Godfrey said.
And we can't fail to note that Godfrey concedes that the Bordeaux wireless streetcars are "unique." As every Weber County Forum reader knows, unique is only a click or two down the Godfrey preference scale from "cool and sexy."
Here's a view of the Bordeaux wireless streetcar, by the way:
Last week we posed the question: "Anybody want to make a side bet on whether or not our Emerald City Mayor will return to town [from Europe] raving about street cars?" Not surprisingly, we didn't get any takers willing to wager that Godfrey would fall in love with European streetcar technology.
Given the paucity of info provided in today's story, it's certainly too early to draw any firm conclusions about whether Godfrey's public transit affections have been won over to transportation alternatives designed for grownups. Nevertheless, we'll go out on a limb and tentatively offer this observation: At least at this juncture he's talking about streetcars as a viable public transit option... and no longer raving about gondolas. That's progress, we suppose.
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
