Promoted

Right now, the elephant in the room for Chicagoland public transportation planners and advocates is the looming regional transit fiscal cliff as federal COVID-19 funding subsidies run out. According to the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra, and Pace, the three systems will face a $770 million total shortfall – almost 20 percent of the operating budget – in 2026. The RTA says that if the issue is not addressed by this spring, the result would be higher fares and reduced service, leading to less ridership, aka the dreaded "transit death spiral".

McCoy Cantwell was born and raised in Chicago and now live in Los Angeles, where he's pursing a master's degree urban and regional planning at Cal Poly Pomona. He wrote this piece as a class assignment to discuss a current planning issue.

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It's relatively simple to eulogize people who were well-loved, or even just generally liked, and who never really did much out of the ordinary in their lives. Longtime Chicago cycling advocate Arthur Travis Duffey, known as "Flip Bike Travis," was not such a person.

Earlier this month, The Travel mentioned Chicago Union Station – along with Baltimore's Penn Station – as being one of two American Amtrak stops that needs a revamp. "Much of the [Chicago] station’s infrastructure feels outdated and disconnected," the website noted. "The lower-level concourses, where most passengers navigate, lack the charm and appeal of the main hall... The station’s confusing layout and aging facilities often frustrate travelers."

Update Monday 4/28/25, 12:45 PM: Block Club Chicago reports that on Thursday, April 24, the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Iryna Kalach, 39, and charged her with the hit-and-run killing.

Last Tuesday, Streetsblog Chicago published summaries of nine 2025 pedestrian and bike fatality cases on surface streets in the city of Chicago, which we hadn't previously covered in our Fatality Tracker posts.

Update 1/23/26, 11:30 AM: This morning I completed my annual Polar Vortex tradition of biking a couple miles from SBCHQ to Montrose Harbor to catch the sunrise. It was it was -5F and it’s gotten colder since then, but I was pretty comfy. (But, like last year, Polar Plunge folks [unsanctioned – the official one been cancelled this year due to the subzero weather] were more hardcore than me!)

The Active Transportation Alliance kindly asked Streetsblog Chicago to talk about what we saw last month during our Bike Lane Fest 2024 excursions.