Getting up to speak to the

Fayette County commissioners is a surprisingly unnerving experience, I

learned recently. For one thing, the podium is uncomfortably high and

makes you stand with your least elegant assets toward those who have gathered

to commune with their elected officials.

Add to that a tendency to tremble

in hand and voice when nervous, out of ardor for your subject or because

of that darned three-minute timer, and you can make a pathetic spectacle

of yourself. For me, the worst part was knowing I was speaking to a dead

(for now) issue and from the viewpoint of a minority of those present.

I hope my written words likewise

convey the passion I felt when I told the commissioners that they are

wrong about a couple of things.

First among them is that oft-repeated

falsehood that "No one in Fayette County wants public transportation,"

a.k.a. "We're not ready for public transportation here."

I know we pro-transits are

in the minority, and have soft voices, but make no mistake, I am not alone

in wanting transportation options in this community. And as the county's

population ages, more and more will join me.

In ensuing articles reporting

the commissioners' refusal of bus service for Fayette, I saw not one word

about the contrary view I presented, not even in The Citizen. This omission

helps perpetuate the myth that "There's just not a lot of support

for bus service in the county."

(Ironically, I was less disappointed

than I thought I would be, because the commissioners' decision means Fayette

County will not be building $13 million worth of new roads anytime soon.

Asphalt is counterproductive to reducing traffic and hence cleaning the

air which, Commissioner Frady needs to be corrected, exceeded federal

standards far more than "a day or two" in recent years.

The metropolitan area, which

includes Fayette, earned smog alerts 20 days in 2001, 46 days in 2000,

69 in 1999, 22 in 1998. The county registered among the highest in the

area on several of those days.)

In an AJC editorial response,

Peachtree City's mayor argued that the building of too many roads produced

the congestion the north metro counties are suffering, then proposed that

the state buy up rights-of-way to attract economic growth on the south

side.

Road-building in northern counties

causes congestion; road-building in the southern tier alleviates congestion

and makes public transit unnecessary? What odd reasoning.

The mantra, "If you build

them, they will come," has been proven to apply to roads at least

as surely as to baseball diamonds. Time and again, the expansion of highways

has resulted in an even greater glut of traffic with its inevitable surge

in bad-air days.

Our elected officials seem

to think we want it that way. They are wrong.

Among those who would benefit

most from public transit:

· Seniors leery of interstate

driving and hard-to-find parking;

· College students who

now have to choose between the high cost of living in Atlanta or driving

daily from Fayette;

· Aficionados of Atlanta's

cultural arts who don't wish to drive, especially at night;

· A small but deserving

disabled population who cannot drive;

· A surprising number

of people who cannot afford car ownership and are essentially stranded

unless they can arrange rides with friends.

At first I thought Steve Brown

was kidding when he promoted in his editorial what sounded suspiciously

like golf carts as the alternative-fuel solution for our county's transportation

needs. Sure, golf carts and the new street-legal hybrids are useful for

local errands, but neither is going to get us outside the city limits.

Considering how much I've bragged

on my planned hometown, I feel traitorous saying now that Peachtree City

has done as poor a job planning for transportation as Fayette County itself.

In our 1960s fervor to prevent downtown blight, we have eliminated downtown,

distributing stores from Kedron nearly to Redwine Road, about seven miles.

Except for quick golf cart trips to a food store near you, you cannot

reasonably run errands here without a car.

There is not one hardware store

or garden center accessible by golf cart. And even when you drive your

car to a shopping center, you can't realistically carry purchases from

one end to the other, from Kroger to Kmart, say, or from Williams Sonoma

to Atlanta Bread Company, without driving.

The same is true in Fayetteville.

No one is going to pick up fertilizer or a new screen door at Home Depot

and then walk nearly a mile to Kohl's or Wal-Mart. You drive from one

end of the Pavilion to the other.

Business with the county? The

tax office is across a busy highway and a half-mile from court offices.

Back in your car.

The commissioners' opinion

notwithstanding, Fayette needs:

· An open-minded transportation

authority or commission within the county to put together a transportation

plan that relies on something other than cars and still more road construction;

· Designated walkways

along city streets and across large parking lots;

· A tram circulating through

our large shopping centers;

· A shuttle looping through

the county, linking government offices, Fayette Pavilion, Peachtree City

shopping centers, the hospital and medical centers;

· With our huge airline

and frequent-flier population, links to Hartsfield, connecting with MARTA

and downtown's entertainment, educational, and business amenities;

· Bus service, for openers,

and eventually commuter and regional rail alternatives to air travel.

Only government is big enough

to pull such services together, and GRTA appears to be the only likely

agency at the moment. For openers, they must bring existing services,

like the MARTA system, to accountability for safety, dependability, and

well-maintained equipment.

Would public transportation

be expensive? Certainly. Would it pay for itself? Of course not. Neither

do sewers or highway systems. For local-transit success stories, look

at Portland, Ore., Chattanooga and Knoxville where buses or trolleys circulate

through downtown loops free.

Why does a community as large

and well-off as this one not have even a rudimentary public transportation

system? Check back on the profile I offered at the top of this column,

then look at our county commissioners. They are non-commuters, do not

have college-aged children, are well-off and own cars, and are mostly

young enough not to mind driving to downtown events.

There were at least three people

in the commissioners' chambers who agreed with me the evening I rose to

speak. (Those who avoid driving after dark or do not own cars, obviously,

were not there.) One was a 30-something white man who pointed out the

demographics in the preceding paragraph. One was an older black gentleman

who shook my hand and thanked me.

And one was a black student

who stepped up to the mike after I did, and asked if Fayette County is

worried about her relatives coming to visit. Perceptive, that child.

Local entities like Fayette's

commissioners love to say we don't need big government to do our planning

for us, that we can take care of ourselves.

Then why haven't we?