Mike Jones is the mayor of Windsor Heights.

If you’ve been overseas, you have to love the buses and trains. It’s effortless to get around in Paris, Berlin, Munich or London. They have vast transportation networks that can cheaply and quickly transport you miles in only a few short minutes. With a few exceptions, such networks don’t exist in U.S. cities.

Ford’s assembly line method of mass production finally made the automobile affordable for the everyman. After World War II, cheap mortgages, the construction of the Interstate Highway System, and veterans receiving benefits from the G.I. Bill gave birth to the sprawling suburbs that we see today. The convenience and the independence granted by the automobile became part of our culture and for better or worse, shapes how we fund infrastructure and public services in our country.

Unfortunately, the automobile revolution has also resulted in the minimizing and under-funding of mass transit.

The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) is facing a funding crisis right now. If municipalities, especially Des Moines, do not step up and pay more, DART will have to cut services. To many, that doesn’t mean anything. “No one rides the bus” really means “I don’t ride the bus.” And that’s fine! It might not be for you. But a lot of people do ride the bus and depend on DART to get to work, the store, or school.

Many do not see the value of public transit, either seeing it as impractical or too inconvenient to utilize. If it’s an issue of convenience, remember that even the best transportation networks require you to walk someplace and wait. When it comes to DART, depending on where you live, you might have to wait even longer, because they probably don’t have the funding to consistently run a bus to where you are. This should be a reason to call for more funding, not less.

Last month, Grimes voted to cut ties with DART, citing low ridership numbers. I have heard other city leaders cite low rider numbers when discussing funding. My question would then be, what efforts are being made by cities to inspire residents to ride DART? Are we, as municipal leaders, encouraging and educating residents on public transit in our communities? If we aren’t, then we share some of the blame for its failure.

The best transit networks have the best funding. In London, the transportation budget is nearly twice as much as the next largest line item, public safety. We do the opposite in the U.S. The City of Des Moines is discussing spending tens of millions of dollars for a new police station, but there does not appear to be much optimism for an increase in DART funding. We want businesses to be located in downtown Des Moines, but there is cynicism about providing the funding for people to get to those businesses.

Convenience is king, for us. We love to drive. I love to drive. But our love for the open road can make things less convenient. Congestion is more prevalent across the metro and has led to several projects to widen highways and roads, despite the research showing that widening doesn’t reduce traffic.

Looking at it from a different perspective: if 50 more people rode the bus, there could be 50 fewer cars on the road. To make that scenario more likely, we should educate residents and appropriately fund DART. Make it easier to ride the bus, not harder. If we choose not to, then we might as well all get comfortable in the traffic jam.