The most popular Annapolis bus route is the downtown circulator.

It’s a free, short loop linking City Dock, West Street and the streets near Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in 10- to 15-minute intervals. The simple idea was born out of a 2009 transportation study.

But a bolder aspect of that study was left behind, replacing that route one day with a streetcar system.

That day might be getting closer.

Alderman Rob Savidge is working to launch a feasibility study that could solve two of the city’s most nagging problems — too few homes and too many cars.

That’s his vision for a future Annapolis, a city where transportation alternatives mean people get around by walking, cycling and taking small railway trams. It’s the sort of ambitious leap he says he learned from outgoing Mayor Gavin Buckley.

“Gavin, he’s the guy who taught us how to be visionary, think big,” Savidge said.

When Democrat Jared Littmann takes office as mayor on Dec. 1, he’ll work with a remade City Council. Five new members will join current members Savidge, Karma O’Neill and Brooks Schandelmeier.

Littmann wants a customer service ethic at City Hall and to finish Buckley’s City Dock makeover to provide flood protection and a revitalized city center. If he has a vision for transformative changes, he hasn’t expressed it.

That means the job of city visionary — pointing to where Annapolis goes next — could be up for grabs.

Ideas for Annapolis 2035 and 2045 might come from the council, and Savidge is a good bet for key architect.

“That’s why, in the past few years, I’ve been lining up studies to really get the ball rolling on identifying things we can do,” he said.

Every council member will, undoubtedly, come to the job with objectives, problems to solve and ideas for change.

If Savidge has an advantage, it’s seniority. First elected in 2017, he’ll be the longest-serving councilmember. That doesn’t mean any defined power, but he benefits from having seen how things work.

“That’s an argument against term limits,” he said. “It takes a long time to get things done, right? You need to have some continuity on the council, and that’s what I hope to bring.”

It is a long way from the coffee shop where I first met Savidge in 2014. He was part of the tiny Green Party, focused on climate change while working in city government.

He quickly realized, in Democrat-dominated Annapolis, a Green had zero power. Savidge switched parties and jobs, then ran to represent Ward 7.

He’s worked on neighborhood issues like sidewalks but also on environmental ideas, loss of tree cover to development and stormwater pollution.

That’s part of his motivation for bringing back electric streetcars 75 years after Annapolis replaced them with buses: reducing climate footprint.

His constituents like what he’s doing.

Savidge is the only alderman in recent memory to run for reelection without opposition — twice. He even campaigned reusing green “Vote Savidge” signs from his previous runs.

“They’re vintage!” he said, laughing.

Sitting on barstools a few weeks before the election, Savidge, O’Neill and Schndelmeier took turns talking to a Democratic breakfast club about the future.

O’Neill blamed the shortage of affordable housing on too many short-term rentals. Schandelmeier blamed the city’s obsession with single-family homes on quarter-acre lots.

Savidge disagreed, saying nothing will change until Annapolis gets cars off its overcrowded roads.

“Forest Drive is the most dangerous road in the county,” he said. “Our kids are walking on that road, and it’s the most dangerous road in the county. How is that acceptable to anybody?”

It’s a lesson, he said, made clear on two trips that City Council members took to Europe, in 2023 and 2024. City planning efforts there addressed climate change with walkable cities that are vibrant, quiet and don’t smell of exhaust.

“I asked myself, how do you get the transformation that I saw in Europe?” he said.

Until that trip, Savidge opposed new homes in Annapolis that would add to congestion and pollution.

“When we went there, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they have a solution because people have an alternative to cars.’”

Like Savidge’s vision, to replace underused buses with streetcars.

“If we want to achieve our climate goals, you have to get a system that people are going to want to use,” he said.

A feasibility study would involve city, Anne Arundel County, state and private money.

“We’re still trying to work with them on money, and there’s the Denker Foundation, who helped fund some of these European tours,” Savidge said.

Studies are the easy part. The alderman has launched studies on traffic circles, converting streets for pedestrians and a transit hub on Forest Drive.

Getting it done will be another thing.

The District of Columbia is ending its revived streetcar, citing low ridership, costs and budget cuts under President Donald Trump.

That’s not stopping Savidge.

“I don’t see any alternative except to try.”