Thomas Bamonte

Kirk Dillard: "RTA board and staff are committed to a handoff that is smooth, strategic, and grounded in decades of regional experience. If we lead with regional coordination and a relentless focus on the rider, northern Illinois will have a transit system that is the gold standard for the nation."

Roberto Requejo: "The [NITA] legislation's most consequential provisions may well be those that received the least attention: three measures enabling transit-oriented development that can reshape how the Chicago region grows for decades to come."

Prof. Funderburg: "But a flaw in the new law is its practical elimination of the 'farebox recovery ratio,' which once incentivized efficiency. The new law capitulates a permanent loss in ridership and provides no incentive for offsetting lower public benefits with service cuts."

Nina Idemudia/Jacky Grimshaw: "[NITA directors] must...understand the intersection of transit, land use, housing, and equity, [be] prepared to move beyond the status quo. Executive leadership must have the autonomy and expertise to pursue different outcomes, not simply manage inherited systems."

Representative Eva-Dina Delgado: "With the passage of the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act, we are replacing outdated bureaucracy with a unified, transparent system built for the future. Just as important, it invests $1.5 billion annually here in the Chicago-area and downstate systems."

Public transit has a chance to reinvent how people connect and get around Yet many, near and far, are watching to see which actions will move a new transit authority in the most effective direction.

Article and commentaries on public transit in the Chicago region published in @crainschicago.bsky.social: www.chicagobusiness.com/crains-forum...

I'm not sure I completely agree with Thomas on this but it's a really interesting argument.

Enough room under this bridge for the barges servicing the Ozinga facility just north of Cortland Ave. to pass?

Urban Roadway in America: The Amount, Extent, and Value We predicted the amount, share, and value of land dedicated to roadways within and across 316 U.S. primary metropolitan statistical areas. Despite the amount and value of land dedicated to roadways...

See Prof. Guerra: "[T]he avg. cost of expanding roadways exceeded benefits by [~3x] when accounting for land value. Policymakers should ... consider options to reduce the amount of space dedicated to roadway in favor of more housing, offices, and other land uses." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Opinion: One Less Lane Ought To Fix It — Streetsblog USA Federal inaction means states must lead on reducing emissions — but their reluctance to reallocate road space for cars may doom climate goals.

Research summary per @alextburns.bsky.social: "[I]t is time for state transportation leaders to come to terms with an inconvenient truth: climate goals are not feasible without a swift and methodical reallocation of road space away from cars." usa.streetsblog.org/2025/12/02/o...

It is noteworthy that the recent Blue Ribbon Commission Report @illinoisdot.bsky.social calls for road diets and the use of nature-based highway infrastructure solutions. (BRC Report also signaled openness to GHG/VMT reduction goals/targets.) idot.illinois.gov/content/dam/...

Depaving initiatives have a wealth of co-benefits that can be used to build support—e.g., urban heat island mitigation, reduced flooding risk, safety, improved neighborhood aesthetics (trees > concrete), reduced DOT maintenance burden and costs.

DOTs manage highway infrastructure. Directing them to reduce excess pavement is thus a reasonable directive for which they can reasonably be held accountable. Policies (e.g., eliminating parking minimums laws) and incentives can encourage private actors to repurpose excess pavement too.

Regulatory initiatives that impose per capita caps on pavement sq. footage (or lane miles) and have substantial incentives to encourage repurposing excess pavement for higher value uses have more potential to move the GHG/VMT needle over time than imposing GHG/VMT targets on DOTs in the abstract.

Climate Report Card Gives MassDOT A Failing Grade As Mass. Misses Key Climate Goals - Streetsblog Massachusetts As traffic continues to increase and EV sales lag, will MassDOT finally pivot to public transportation as a climate solution?

Making DOTs responsible for reducing GHG/VMT when they lack control over vehicle technology and land use risks making laws focused only on GHG/VMT reduction goals/targets just performative exercises w/modest real world impact. E.g., mass.streetsblog.org/2026/02/13/c...

Depaving initiatives address the root cause of transport sector GHG/VMT--our inventory of highway and parking pavement. In contrast, the current transport sector regulatory GHG/VMT reduction model tries to manage the outcomes without getting to infrastructure root cause of transport GHG/VMT.

Nearly half of L.A. County’s pavement may be unnecessary, new map finds Researchers have released the first parcel-level analysis to map all paved surfaces across L.A. County. In particular, large parking lots are ripe for change, they say.

Depaving initiatives should supplement if not supersede the current prevailing state-level regulatory model of imposing GHG/VMT goals or targets on state DOTs. 🧵 www.latimes.com/environment/...

Which alders voted against the ordinance to allow citizens to report bike and bus lane blockage by commercial vehicle drivers? - Streetsblog Chicago This post includes reporting by a contributing writer. Frustratingly, yesterday almost two-thirds of the Chicago City Council voted down an ordinance that would have allowed citizens to report evidenc...

Proposed ordinance facilitating citizen reporting of commercial vehicles blocking bus/bike lanes decisively rejected by Chicago City Council. chi.streetsblog.org/2026/02/19/w...

After 3 recent pedestrian crashes, one fatal, CDOT must act now to save lives on Inner Lake Shore Drive - Streetsblog Chicago By Kalen Luciano Luciano is a Lakeview resident and organizer with Lakeview Urbanists where he advocates for projects and policies that build more abundant housing, active transportation, and safe str...

The @lakeviewurbanists.bsky.social call on CDOT to do more than add additional signage and paint to address Inner Lake Shore Drive pedestrian safety hazards. chi.streetsblog.org/2026/02/20/a...

Yesterday (Friday) afternoon. Pace bus route 808. Route 807 also serves Woodstock Station. It is not shown in Pace’s Bus Tracker either. Both had 3:37 p.m. arrival times. Metra inbound UP-NW train has 3:33 p.m. departure—missed rail passenger feed opportunity, but both buses were ~20 minutes late.

No real-time info. in Transit/Ventra/Google. Called Uber after 20 min. Pace bus comes 2 min. before Uber. Uber caught up w/bus and followed it to my destination, which was adjacent to the bus stop I hoped to access via Pace.

To think people fought so hard to protect this transit service status quo.

Took outbound Metra UP-NW to Woodstock. Station closed on cold day. Observed that Pace feeder buses were scheduled to arrive 4 minutes after inbound train scheduled to leave. My bus didn't arrive as scheduled but bus route serving station inexplicably not in Pace's Bus tracker app so no ETA info. 🧵

Governor Newsom signs legislation authorizing $590 million emergency loan to Bay Area Transit | Governor of California

Glad that Illinois is not dinking around on transit funding, having passed transit funding/reform bill last Fall. Bay Area transit agencies are betting on passage of regional transit sales tax measure later this year for longer-term solution. www.gov.ca.gov/2026/02/19/g...

When The Suburbs Want To Opt Out of Funding Regional Transit — Streetsblog USA A messy transit funding fight in Dallas may have reached a pause — but some advocates fear the détente won't hold.

In the Chicago region state law enacted as part of a 2008 transit reform package allows 5 "collar" suburban counties to divert 1/3 of the regional transit sales tax revenue raised in their counties to non-transit uses. The NITA Act does not change this approach. usa.streetsblog.org/2026/02/19/w...

"For example, local parking mandates often require a uniform minimum number of spaces for every new build – even in places where people don’t have cars because they have ample public transit and available street parking.... Spaces for cars are being prioritized over spaces for people."

Gov. Pritzker: "In many places, local regulations have made it too difficult and costly to build new housing.... It all adds up to bureaucratic red tape that unnecessarily increases costs, delays construction, and frequently kills projects altogether." www.nprillinois.org/government-p...

Pritzker to propose statewide zoning laws to spur homebuilding, limit local control Article Summary JB Pritzker will propose a plan during his State of the State address to drastically limit local governments’

Gov. Pritzker proposal "drastically limiting" local government control over types of housing structures allowed on land zoned residential might distract those now trying to dilute the IL transit reform bill to allow local gov. parking minimums near transit. capitolnewsillinois.com/news/pritzke...

Housing affordability is improving in many big cities — but not Chicago While homebuyers in seven of the nation's 10 largest metros gained buying power in 2025, Chicago buyers' affordability shrank.

"Nationwide, the amount of income needed to buy the median-priced home dropped by 4% during the year. That is, [housing] affordability grew by 4%. There's a gap of 7.5 percentage points between the nation's gain in [housing] affordability and Chicago's loss." www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-...

Illinois' EV push meets market reality Electric-vehicle sales in Illinois plunged after federal tax credits expired and state rebates shrank, raising questions about demand as Gov. JB Pritzker presses ahead with ambitious EV goals.

EV sales drop in Illinois as federal subsidies dry up. Slowed EV adoption coupled w/federal (in)action on fuel efficiency standards means that vehicle-centric approach to transportation sector GHG reduction less viable. Land use/highway infrastructure now key. www.chicagobusiness.com/manufacturin...