It is not news to Fast Lane readers that – come May 31^st – federal funding for transportation will expire, right at the start of construction season.

This crisis, our readers know, is not new, either. It’s six years – and 32-short term funding measures – in the making.

On top of that, for more than a decade now, federal transportation funding has been stuck at a level below what is needed to merely keep the transportation infrastructure we have in good shape.

Well, on Monday, I met with the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) Cities of Opportunity Task Force: two dozen mayors who, like us, want to see real change happen in transportation.

From left: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Transportation Deputy Secretary Victor Mendez, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh at a Cities of Opportunity Task Force meeting in Boston. Courtesy of U.S. Conference of Mayors/@usmayors.

Led by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the task force was asked by USCM President Kevin Johnson to find ways to reduce income inequality in America’s cities and metros. To do this, Johnson has said, requires building a “community and economy that works for everyone.” And to do that, we know, requires cities to invest in transportation systems that leave no one behind. 

The mayors already have a lot of great plans for how to do this.  But what I also heard is that too many of these plans – and a lot of the most potentially transformative ones – are stalled, and won’t move forward, until this funding crisis finally passes.

We agree with task force member and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who told reporters: “…We must have a re-energized federal government that is acting as an equal partner to support the great work happening at the local level.”  We were pleased, too, to see all the mayors come together after the meeting to talk about their infrastructure challenges and to issue a call to Congress to increase federal investment in transportation.

There may be only roughly two months left until transportation funding expires. That doesn’t mean, though, that history has to repeat itself, nor should it compel mayors to lower their expectations for what is possible. After all, the data tells us that no state, region, city, or community can really afford to stay on our current path for much longer.

In our recent study, Beyond Traffic, we found that, 30 years from now, our country will be home to 70 million more people. Many of them, too, will live in large metro areas, where, as it stands, too many highways are already congested, too many rail and bus routes need extending, and too many bicycling and walking routes remain fractured.

So it is important to understand that if states and cities and local governments continue to get the same level of funding, then less – not even the same – is what they will get in return. It will be as if we are running in reverse – when transportation, of course, is all about carrying us forward.

This is why my message to the task force was to continue focusing instead on what cities really need: which is a long-term bill like our GROW AMERICA Act.

Mayors should continue speaking truthfully about everything that needs to get done, but can’t, until this funding crisis is solved. They can help us make clear that passing a bill like ours isn’t a brave thing for Congress to do, but simply what is best for the country.