I did civil engineering work for a rehabilitated railroad depot, being converted into a museum.
It turns out that old railroad depots converted in museums are ‘transportation’ projects; and, the project got some federal TEA money (Transportation Equity Act). Of course this is ridiculous. It got more ridiculous when the state DOT had to review and approve the plans for the building’s parking lot. It was a time consuming and wasteful process - no different than what would be used reviewing plans for an interstate highway.
Any rail depots being rehabed in your town? Federal money.
Round-abouts sprouting up on local streets in your community? Likely Federal money.
Cameras going up at intersections? They were ‘free’, from the feds.
Adding bike lanes in town? You guessed it.
The list is endless. The final insult was my professional engineering exam, for my license. Instead of questions/problems about highways, I was bombarded with problems about bus platforms, bike parking, sidewalk capacity, etc...liberal nirvana had infiltrated an engineering exam.
My favorites/s are those irritating “traffic calming measures”...those bubbles and loops and ovals of raised sidewalk that cut down the width of a road from 4 total lanes to 2. I’m sure many of those are Fed funded, and I’m equally sure the city board of whatever parcels out these stupid projects to their buddies.
I used to live in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. A great number of these traffic calming bubbles were installed...and then some years later, removed when emegency vehicles had troubles getting around them.