If

you want to go from Fayetteville to Marietta

today, you have only one way to get there, says

Atlanta Regional Commission director Harry West.

But

that's going to change, he said. Within ten

years, you'll have a choice of driving your car,

riding a bus or train, or carpooling with someone

else and using an extended network of high

occupancy vehicle lanes.

"All

we're talking about is providing alternative ways

of getting you from one place to another,"

West said during a public hearing last week in

Fayetteville on the ARC's proposed 25-year, $36

billion Regional Transportation Plan.

ARC,

regional planning agency for the 10-county

Atlanta region, is proposing to increase spending

for public transportation and reduce funding for

road construction. Officials hope by doing so

they will bring about an improvement in the

quality of air in the region, freeing up federal

dollars for transportation projects here.

Federal

agencies have placed the region under a

moratorium on transportation spending because air

quality fails to meet Environmental Protection

Agency standards.

"We're

starting to see the light at the end of the

tunnel," West told a small crowd of about 75

local residents who attended the hearing.

Both

the RTP and the Transportation Improvement

Program, a more detailed plan that covers the

next three years, are in the public comment

stage. After gathering public comment, ARC

expects to formally adopt the documents March 22.

Included

in the agency's proposals is a $70 million rail

line connecting Senoia to Hartsfield

International Airport, 31 miles away, with stops

in Tyrone and Peachtree City. That's part of $6.3

billion in rail projects being proposed.

The

plan also includes a 90 percent increase in the

number of buses serving metro Atlanta, and a 245

percent increase in miles of HOV expressway

lanes.

Equally

important, West said, is that local governments

encourage land uses that reduce the number of

miles people travel daily, such as village type

developments where people can live, work and

shop. But, he added, "These kinds of things

are a hard sell. The American people hate two

things - sprawl and density," he said,

shaking his head. "Where's the happy

medium?"

ARC

can encourage local governments to change, but

the agency has no enforcement power, he said.

But

the new Georgia Regional Transportation

Authority, created last year by the General

Assembly to oversee all transportation

improvements in the state, was given power to

enforce its directives.

"ARC

deals with planning, and GRTA deals with

implementation," said West. "We can't

tell anybody they have to do something, but we

hope to make it attractive for them to do

so."

To

learn more about ARC's transportation plans, or

to comment on them, phone 404-463-3102, or visit www.atlantaregional.com .

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