Manhattan Bridge, originally uploaded by plemeljr

John Adams was right, “Thomas Jefferson survives, and is winning: Cities Lose Out on Road Funds From Federal Stimulus:

Two-thirds of the country lives in large metropolitan areas, home to the nation’s worst traffic jams and some of its oldest roads and bridges. But cities and their surrounding regions are getting far less than two-thirds of federal transportation stimulus money.
According to an analysis by The New York Times of 5,274 transportation projects approved so far — the most complete look yet at how states plan to spend their stimulus money — the 100 largest metropolitan areas are getting less than half the money from the biggest pot of transportation stimulus money. In many cases, they have lost a tug of war with state lawmakers that urban advocates say could hurt the nation’s economic engines.
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The 100 largest metropolitan areas also contribute three-quarters of the nation’s economic activity, and one consequence of that is monumental traffic jams. A study of congestion in urban areas released Wednesday by the Texas Transportation Institute found that traffic jams in 2007 cost urban Americans 2.8 billion gallons of wasted gas and 4.2 billion hours of lost time.

This shouldn’t be news. Our government at both the Federal and State level is structurally aligned to diffuse power, and thus money, to rural America. The Senate is but one example where the great people of Montana have more representation than the Borough of Brooklyn.
Here in New York State, when we actually have a functioning government, often Upstate is denying New York City homerule – cf bus lane cameras, letting the MTA’s finances crumble (Pataki), denying congestion charge, to name but a few.
If you want to change this, get rid of the US Senate and move toward unicameral state legislatures.