Amy Tennery rails against the lack of operating funds for transit in this worthy piece in Slate. Teaser:

This week, the city of St. Louis shut down nearly one-third of its bus service. More than a quarter of the city's residents will go without bus access in the largest service cutback the region has ever seen. Sure, Missouri received $546 million in stimulus funds for transit projects, but that's largely headed toward passenger-car projects like roads and bridges.

Why wouldn't Missouri put the money toward saving its fractured mass transit system? Because it's not allowed to.

There's some good history and demographic information in the article as well.