Portland Streetcar News - Page 5

PacificNW · #81 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 2:49 AM**

↑You're right...now where did I put my glasses?

Drmyeyes · #82 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 3:03 AM**

I appreciate your posting that information urbanpdx, but as concerns the question of whether we as a metropolitan area, part of a global system have an ongoing problem related to human produced air pollution, we may be talking somewhat of two different things.

Certainly, I don't dispute that great strides have been made related to reducing amounts of pollution that automobiles and other human related ativities introduce into the atmosphere. Just go to a vintage car parade and check out those beautifully restored beauties representing the entire decade span of automobile history up to about 1975. Compared to today's modern internal combustion engines, they spew filth exorbitantly.

What we have today, is an increasing population that continues to be inclined, where measures aren't put in place to counter it, to rely on the very seductive, comfortable mode of transportation represented by the personal automobile. Recognizing that fact of human nature in today's civilization, it would seem to make sense to use something like fareless square to counter the consequences of that inclination even if the city is successfully keeping air pollution at or below officially accepted air pollution standards.

It's really a matter of anticipating the demands of the future. and responsiby addressing them.

sirsimon · #83 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 3:38 AM**

Yikes! That is some scary stuff (Benzene).

How ridiculous that they would allow fuel rich in this nasty chemical because our air is "cleaner"...

WonderlandPark · #84 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 4:39 AM**

^^"Yikes! That is some scary stuff (Benzene). "

Gawd. I am a pretty damn green person and can see right through this "media-problem-de-jour" benzene. Give me a frigging break, like any stupid trial/murder case, somehow the media has latched onto the latest bogey-man --benzene--. It is simple, benzene is a fact of combustion. You want to eat? Go to work? Fly off to Hawaii? Then you are going to burn something, and *sirens going off* you are burning a carbon based fuel. And when you do that, you get ozone, smog, CO2 and other things LIKE BENZENE. Please be realistic, one day we will be off this stuff, but for now, our economy depends on it. I don't like it, but I am realistic, drive a 40 mpg car, signed up for green energy, and so on--consistently, all my life, but the system is the system. Portland is leagues ahead of the rest of the country, but we still depend on carbon fuels *for our lives* to put it bluntly. That is the age we live in.

PacificNW · #85 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 5:35 AM**

↑It seems to me that there could be a better way of refining this particular type of crude to reduce the benzene content.

westsider · #86 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 10:01 AM**

There is, but it costs more money, and without someone proding them to refineries wont do it out of the kindness of their hearts.

65MAX · #87 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 10:20 AM**

So anyway.......

How 'bout those yellow and apple green streetcars?

What wacky colors will those rebels at PDX Streetcar come up with next?

vjoe · #88 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 12:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 65MAX

So anyway.......

How 'bout those yellow and apple green streetcars?

What wacky colors will those rebels at PDX Streetcar come up with next?

maybe bright purple with glitters.

roner · #89 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 5:22 PM**

My girlfriend, who rides the streetcar everyday to work at OHSU, wants the car to be bright pink, but would mostly likely be happy with bright purple with glitter.

Also, I asked her about the homeless population that rides the streetcar after you guys had a talk about it and she seems to think that not many ride the car (at least when shes one it). Of course there are some, but she has never had a problem with it, and she rides everyday.

Drmyeyes · #90 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 7:47 PM**

Bright purple with glitter!! Nice. Actually, yesterday I saw a new Mary Kay pink Cadillac that was absolutely elegant...the trademark MK pink with a pearlescent sheen. Wonder if Mary Kay would want to sponsor the street car with a signature paint job. Sell them on the idea by suggesting that the streetcar is the perfect mode of transportation for their sales reps to market their cosmetic line.

MarkDaMan · #91 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 7:53 PM**

ha! The Mary Kay car, Eddie Bauer car, and for the luxurious, the Louis Vuitton car...that would be smart marketing actually!

PacificNW · #92 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 9:46 PM**

Oregon Iron Works Inc. is receiving a $4 million contract to produce the nation's first domestically-manufactured modern streetcar.

The announcement was made Friday at the company's headquarters in Clackamas by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Transportation.

"I'm proud that Oregon will get to show that we can produce a quality product as good or better than they make in Europe and restore good, family-wage manufacturing jobs here at home," DeFazio said.

DeFazio, with the assistance of the Oregon and Washington congressional delegations, secured a special authorization of $4 million to foster the domestic production of a streetcar vehicle similar to the Portland Streetcar.

Oregon Iron Works will build a prototype streetcar under the aegis of its newly-formed subsidiary, United Streetcar LLC. The prototype will be based on the model currently manufactured in the Czech Republic by Skoda, provider of cars for Portland's five-year-old streetcar system. The design is for a four-axle, double-ended, low-floor streetcar, fully compatible with the existing Portland Streetcar. The award of this contract will make Oregon Iron Works the sole U.S. manufacturer of the modern low-floor streetcar.

Oregon Iron Works will add 20 new employees to produce the streetcar.

The company employs more than 400 and has additional manufacturing facilities in Vancouver.

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

pdxstreetcar · #93 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 10:43 PM**

great news

http://www.oriron.com/streetcar.htm

pdxstreetcar · #94 Posted **Jan 26, 2007, 11:24 PM**

Hawthorne Streetcar Advocacy Website

http://www.hawthornestreetcar.org/

Dougall5505 · #95 Posted **Jan 27, 2007, 3:55 AM**

i know i'd ride it

65MAX · #96 Posted **Jan 27, 2007, 7:38 AM**

The three new color combos....

Golden Yellow and Apple Green

Apple Green and Blue

Golden Yellow and Orange

westsider · #97 Posted **Jan 27, 2007, 8:39 AM**

Why do they have to look like they just rolled off of sesame street?

65MAX · #98 Posted **Jan 27, 2007, 9:34 AM**

I was thinking they looked like giant Skittles candies.

mcbaby · #99 Posted **Jan 28, 2007, 1:52 AM**

did anyone read this? i posted it in the portland transit thread.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/por...2/daily45.html

PacificNW · #**100** Posted **Jan 28, 2007, 2:10 AM**

Yes, I posted the same article earlier in this thread... This could build into something pretty good for Portland considering how many other cities are looking into their streetcar options.