If you want

to go from Senoia 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 Tuesday in Fayetteville on the

ARC's proposed 25-year, $36 million 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.

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.

Coweta

County is not a member of the Atlanta Regional

Commission, but because the county is in the area

identified by federal agencies as failing to attain air

quality standards. That's why Coweta is included in ARC's

transportation planning area, along with Pike and

Spalding counties.

Included in

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

connecting Senoia to Hartsfield international Airport, 31

miles away. 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.

The new

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, created last

year by the General Assembly to oversee all

transportation improvements in the state, and 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 .