Avoiding crisis isn’t the same as solving a problem, and sometimes temporary fixes make things worse in the long run.

It’d be nice to have a cheerier takeaway after the witching hour vote to pass Senate Bill 2111 and bail out the Chicago/suburban public transportation agencies that mismanaged themselves onto the edge of a fiscal cliff … with a little help from a global pandemic that dramatically shifted and perhaps permanently altered commuting patterns.

Happy responses are easy to find, it’s just a matter of identifying sources that had a lot to lose without the $1.5 billion spending and reform package. Consider the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation, which optimistically framed the vote as “a hard-won victory for everyone who wants safer, reliable and more efficient public transit in our state.”

Obviously letting Metra, Pace and the CTA run out of money would’ve made mass transportation less safe, more unreliable and wildly inefficient, if it continued to exist at all, but forgive the lack of enthusiasm for process in which lawmakers looked at the bumbling 16-member Regional Transportation Authority and decided a logical step was creating a 20-member Northern Illinois Transit Authority.

If there’s anything we need in Illinois, it’s larger governing bodies so more people can act important while individual influence is diluted. To say nothing about the fact public transportation is important in the states 96 other counties outside the immediate Chicago region, even without a primary goal of funneling people into Union Station.

The bill’s financial provisions aren’t the most troubling. One of government’s primary functions is facilitating getting people and goods from here to there, and efficient buses and trains are just as important as well-kept highways. Given the time and investment required to build and maintain infrastructure, it’s difficult to keep up with evolving trends in how people want to move about. But it’s even harder with insufficient funds, and there’s a lot to be said for generating more revenue from the region that requires the most investment.

However, SB 2111 doesn’t represent a comprehensive, statewide solution and its passage puts the onus back on those dissatisfied with the status quo to push lawmakers to keep working on the challenges even without an imminent financial disaster.

Spending money on transportation infrastructure is positive. But squandering good resources with bad management is all too familiar.

PRISON CONDITIONS PANEL: Rep. Jed Davis, R-Newark, and Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, will lead a discussion about Department of Corrections reform at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Waubonsee Community College. The event will cover “availability of programming, volunteer access, the increasing use of lockdowns and the impacts of lengthy sentences,” according to organizers with Families Against Mandatory Minimums. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/FAMMtownhall.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.