There's also a lot being spent on things that are not even transit, but are required/customary of transit projects. The consultant-class has to get their 10 pounds of flesh, and every project is needled to death by outreach, impact studies, environmental reviews, delays, more environmental reviews, etc. We pay a lot more for the stuff, sure, but we've already blown half the spend before we've even started the job of putting stuff together.

This is of course an over-correction to an equally bad world where you can just get some dopes together to slice up your city like a Christmas ham, usually by demolishing the poor and non-white parts, to build highways.