John Greenfield

• Environmental Law and Policy Center CEO Howard Learner: "Now, let’s focus on making Chicago’s regional transit system work better" (Tribune)

Streetsblog has interviewed just about all the key players in the surprising win for local sustainable transportation, when state lawmakers passed a transit reform/funding bill in the wee hours of October 31, aka the "Halloween Miracle." (Governor JB Pritzker, if you're reading this, call me maybe?)

• Orange you glad the "Halloween Miracle" will let CTA provide 24-hour service on the Orange Line and 20-30 more Frequent Bus Network routes? (Sun-Times)

The film "Power Trip," written and directed by Myron Levin, discusses how films, video games, and automobile ads glamorize the kind of high-risk driving that kills people and tears families apart. While the number of traffic deaths is falling in other affluent nations, American crash fatalities rose to over 40,000 a year, with speed a factor in 30 percent of the cases. "The film is dedicated to the memory of crash victims everywhere, to their grieving families, and to those working to end the slaughter on our roads," its website states.

The October 23 Regional Transit Authority board meeting, in the midst of Springfield's fall veto session on the brink of the transit fiscal cliff, was a contentious affair. It was basically a Spiderman Pointing Circle of people blaming each other for the dire straits Chicagoland transit was facing.

• More coverage of City's plan to buy Greyhound stop, inspired by the Philly station crisis that made Johnson say "I can't go for that" (Block Club, Tribune)

In September 2024, the future of Chicago intercity bus service wasn't looking particularly bright. Greyhound owner FlixBus barely escaped being evicted from its station, 630 W. Harrison St. in the West Loop, by getting a month-to-month lease. It was good that the facility didn't immediately close, which would have kicked riders to the curb, literally, but its future was in limbo.

• Here are RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace statements on the transit bill passing, including RTA becoming the Northern Illinois Transit Authority

On Halloween, a Crain's editorial did a fine job of summing up the stressful, but ultimately successful, legislative process that led to the Illinois General Assembly passing a robust transit reform/funding bill earlier that morning. "A long night yields long-overdue action on transit" is definitely the best op-ed I've seen on the topic in the mainstream press since last Friday.

• "IL Speaker Welch [read our interview with him] talks immigration, transit bills on way to Gov. Pritzker" (ABC)