Cities getting less than a fair share of transportation stimulus

Measured both in terms of population and share of GDP, cities are getting a lower share of transportation stimulus dollars, according to a new analysis by the New York Times.  Blame provincialism.

“If we’re trying to recover the nation’s economy, we should be focusing where the economy is, which is in these large areas,” said Robert Puentes, a senior fellow at theBrookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, which advocates more targeted spending. “But states take this peanut-butter approach, taking the dollars and spreading them around very thinly, rather than taking the dollars and concentrating them where the most complex transportation problems are.”

Being the New York Times, they also have a great graphic to go along with the story.