A lot of the time it's a race issue. I live near Atlanta, where white suburbanites have spent 40 years voting to cripple public transportation, because they're afraid black people will use it to come to their neighborhood.
That is not an exaggeration. One of my coworkers did a historical study and read town hall transcripts from the last couple decades. People were extremely clear why they were voting down mass transit.
The racist joke I was told as a kid was that MARTA stood for "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta." I was so young and naive, I said, "Really? Why would they name it that?" Ugh. The racism of anti-transit people is really inescapable.
That is not an exaggeration. One of my coworkers did a historical study and read town hall transcripts from the last couple decades. People were extremely clear why they were voting down mass transit.