John Greenfield

If you're a frequent Streetsblog Chicago, when it comes to the current public transportation fiscal crisis, this ain't your first bus rodeo. Otherwise, here's our coverage of the issue since last Saturday, May 31, aka "The Night Transit Funding Didn't Go Down In Springfield":

• Driver struck and injured a woman, 73, Wednesday at Laramie/Archer in Garfield Ridge, where a motorist fatally struck Maria Ochoa, 84 in May (ABC)

This post is sponsored by The Bike Lane.

• Cue the song "Eye of the Tiger." Here's a pep talk from Active Trans: "The push for transit funding and reform in Illinois continues"

• Tribune Editorial Board 4/27: Transit agencies are "frantically," "panic stoking," and "begging legislators for money" to address the "so-called fiscal cliff."

• More coverage of "The Night the Transit Funding Bill Didn't Go Down in Springfield": (CapitolFax, Sun-Times, Block Club, Crain's, Trains, Herald, Axios)

Good morning Streetsblog Chicago readers. I hope that as you read this, you've got a cup of strong coffee, or whatever your favorite morning beverage is, while we face the sobering outcome of Saturday's late-night Illinois General Assembly session.

This has been a hectic week for Illinois lawmakers and Chicagoland transit professionals and advocates as we try to avert the prophesied $771 budget cliff. As I type this, we're only about 33 hours away from the end of the spring legislative session, Saturday at midnight. If bills aren't passed to fund and/or reform public transportation in our region, the result will be apocalyptic service cuts and layoffs next year. Therefore, Springfield had better step up soon or, as last week's Soldier Field performers AC/DC would say, we're on the "Highway to Hell"

• Highway to the danger zone: "Cuts To CTA Could Begin Soon If State Doesn’t Fill $770 Million Budget Gap" (Block Club)

Photos by John Greenfield.