The original Build America Bonds program provided issuers rebates equal to 35 percent of interest costs, and issuers ultimately sold more than $180 billion in BABs since the program debuted in April 2009. The existence of BABs ensured a continuing line of credit for states and cities during a fragile financial market, allowing them to proceed with job-creating infrastructure projects despite the rough climate for borrowing. Lisa Lambert in Reuters reported:

The housing market collapse, financial crisis and recession ravaged (state and local) revenues and forced them to cut spending, hike taxes, turn to the federal government for help and borrow at higher levels to keep their budgets balanced.

Wyden said the bonds under his new program would be called TRIPs, or Transportation and Regional Infrastructure Bonds. The matching rate of 35 percent would likely be lowered, though a set amount has not yet been identified.

John Mica, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, indicated support for including BABs in a new transportation bill, and the Washington Post endorsed an extension of the program last November. Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota has been working with Wyden on the issue.

Representative Sander Levin, a Democrat of Michigan, is pushing similar legislation in the House.

Photo credit: The Oregonian

The head of a development firm specializing in green building and a key Northwest labor leader took to the op-ed pages of the Oregonian. In “Getting the best bang for our transportation buck,” Gerding Edlen Development Inc. CEO Mark Edlen and Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain made the case for robust transit investment, and pointed to Portland as an example. “Not only does transit create jobs directly for workers such as bus drivers, but it also creates manufacturing jobs,” they wrote, adding:

Oregon Iron Works manufactures streetcars in Clackamas. Businesses like that are poised to grow, add jobs and better support the region’s economy if the country chooses to make more substantial investments in 21st-century transportation.

Edlen and Chamberlain also pointed out that planning and building more wisely through reformed and forward-looking transportation policy creates jobs today and a lays the foundation for a stronger economy in the decades to come.

Smart land-use planning and investments in affordable options like streetcar, light rail and bike networks make it easier to drive less here, and we do, about 20 percent less than Americans in other large cities. These household savings mean an extra $800 million circulating in our economy because spending less on imported cars and fuel means more money in local pockets to spend on local business.

In another part of the west, Missoula City Coucilmember Dave Strohmaier penned an op-ed on restoring Amtrak service in southern Montana. The piece was published in several of state’s newspapers, including the Billings Gazette.

Strohmaier said passenger rail will be an essential component of a 21st century transportation system and urged Montana to lead.

For too long, Montanans have underestimated our ability to change national transportation policy. Sure, there have been those unflagging passenger rail advocates who have continued doing the good work of keeping this issue alive for the past three decades, but until now we’ve lacked both the political will at all levels of government and a coordinated effort to make passenger rail through southern Montana a reality.

Strohmaier has no quibble with high-speed rail, but he does insist that decision-makers in both Helena and Washington remember the diverse and dispersed benefits that all forms of passenger rail provide. Montana currently receives service from Amtrak’s Empire Builder, but many residents live at great distance from the line and would benefit from additional service. “High speed rail certainly has its place in our national rail infrastructure network,” he wrote, but these projects “should not overshadow the importance of knitting together the rest of the nation — particularly rural America and the American West.”

With funding for public transportation in jeopardy, voices like these from outside of Washington are a needed boost for transit and an important reminder of the options the American say they want.

In 2002, the Climate Trust, a Portland-based non-profit, contracted with the City of Port- land to buy offsets from a project aimed at improving traffic signals.

Naito at Night Originally uploaded by ahockley to Flickr.

Portland traffic flowing smoothly at night.

The traffic signal optimization project ensures maximum green light times for the heaviest traffic flows and allows signal cycle time to adjust based on changing demands during peak times, such as rush hour. Seventeen major arterials were identified for improved signal timing using studies on optimizing traffic flow and reducing gridlock.

“It’s like having the Internet for our transpor- tation system,” said Peter Koonce, Division Manager of Signals and Street Lighting for the City of Portland.

After the signal timing has been completed, the Climate Trust pays Portland based upon the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that will be avoided.

In the program’s first six years, more than 157,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were prevented, the equivalent of the emissions generated from burning 17.7 million gallons of gasoline. As a result of this success, city officials extended the partnership contract through 2012 with a goal of reducing an additional 21,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The project was awarded a ‘Smart Solutions Spotlight’ from ITS America in February 2010.

For More Information: Daily Journal of Commerce, Oregon

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Editor’s Note: Our new report on smarter mobility demonstrates how existing and emerging technologies can squeeze more capacity from over-burdened highways, help commuters avoid traffic delays and expand and improve transportation options, all while saving money and creating jobs. Many of these smart transportation solutions are already fueling innovation throughout the country, through both the public and private sector. These 14 case studies from around the U.S. and the world demonstrate the community benefits smart mobility solutions are giving regions, cities, and businesses.

Read the ITS Case Study Series

Because most railcars are almost entirely produced overseas, other countries have been enjoying the economic benefits of America’s booming transit ridership with new light rail and streetcar lines opening from coast to coast.

That began to change today in Portland, as the first American-made streetcar in almost 60 years was unveiled to the public. The streetcars are made by United Streetcar LLC and their parent company, Oregon Iron Works. The new streetcar, which cost $2.9 million and was responsible for creating 90 jobs, according to the Portland Mercury, was unveiled in a special ceremony today with transportation secretary Ray LaHood. Updated: Here’s the post summing up the visit on LaHood’s blog.

To let everyone in Oregon know how significant Transportation for America thinks this event is, we took out an ad in The Oregonian today to congratulate Portland and their congressmen for making an investment in clean, green jobs in Portland that will pay huge dividends for years to come for Portland and the state of Oregon.

The good news is that it wasn’t just one streetcar. Oregon Iron Works has an order for six more for Portland, and a $26 million order from Tuscon, Arizona. (below, Oregon Iron Works workers pose with an American-made streetcar. Photo from their site)

The Infrastructurist muses on the potential for this Oregon company to lead the way and revive an old industry for the U.S:

If our Spidey sense is right – as, well, it usually is – this company and Oregon have seized an incredibly valuable first-mover advantage in what could prove to be an important domestic industry in years to come. After American cities tore up streetcar tracks and junked their rolling stock en masse in the middle of last century, dozens of [them] are now planning or considering a new system. With oil at $70 a barrel in the depths of brutal global recession, our guess is that number will only grow in the years ahead.

So how about we bring these clean, green jobs home to the USA? Having American companies meeting the demand for new public transportation railcars equals good jobs and a useful product that can help us reduce our dependence on oil, cut emissions, and get us where we need to go quickly and efficiently. What’s not to like?