The figure below indicates the huge changes which have been made over the past 25 years and indicates just how far we have come in such a relatively short time. As a little history, one must keep in mind; these emission regulations for diesel engines are relatively in their infancy compared to the industry in general. Engine emission regulations started for automobiles in 1970, diesels only started being regulated in 1974 and then really only for smoke until 1978. Real emission testing didn't take effect until the advent of steady state transient testing that was instituted in 1979, since then we have come a long way. Using unregulated engines of the 70's as a base, which would blow black soot out the tail pipe all over your car if you were following a transit bus back then. Now we have the

Back in the early 1900's streetcars were the main sources of transportation, for the general public, these cars were a very efficient and useful way of getting around town. In big cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston and even Los Angeles had all adopted streetcars as means of travel.

Online posting. http://www.tri-met.org/januaryspeech.htm

From 1987 when Max first began running to 1998 ridership had almost doubled from about 15 thousand riders per week to almost 30 thousand riders per week. When the Westside light rail opened in 1998 ridership went from 30 thousand riders per week to nearly 65 thousand riders per week in 2000. A statement given at the first of the year by Fred Hansen of the Beaverton Chamber of Commerce, says that "Max ridership is way a head of schedule, in fact we have ridership today which wasn't projected to occur until 2007 or 2008...the overall numbers are remarkable." Several studies done by Tri-Met have shown that 83% of riders prefer to ride Tri-Met over their own car, and with the other two expansion projects on their way ridership is again expected to double leaving little to worry about.

It wasn't until the mid 1920 that General Motors began to take over the street by producing buses. GM began buying out streetcar companies, ripping up old car tracks then implementing their new bus systems. It was these busses that began air pollution problem that we have today. Any company that was involved and could benefit financially from the growth of the transportation industry pitched in on many of the new freeway expansion proposals. As GM became more powerful, they continued to buy out city streetcar companies; by the 1950's GM began to get more support from more companies and city commissioners to begin building freeways. By now just about all of the cities that used streetcars have vanished. More and more people began riding busses and driving cars, cars that General Motors was manufacturing, also adding to the local air pollution. With so many more people riding busses and driving cars, problems with the air began to arise. Air quality was becoming such an important issue in 1965 the government implemented a clean air act.

By creating job opportunities, reducing car trips helping keep our air clean there are many benefits to the Max expansions project. The direction that the city of Portland is heading should leave little doubt that the areas local air quality should be clean for many years to come. Portland isn't going to turn into another polluted Los Angeles.

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Approximate Word count = 1742
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)