South Fulton Residents who

want a better look at the possible future of the county's transportation

needs should head to Shannon Mall Tuesday..

The Atlanta Regional Commission,

the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and other planning agencies

are coming to town that day to get residents' opinions on the Mobility

2030 Regional Transportation Plan.

This is the latest effort by

Atlanta's planners to try and plan for the future transportation needs

of the region. ARC planners estimate another 2.3 million people will move

into the region by 2030, pushing the area's population toward 7 million.

But the latest approach seems

to be a little different than past efforts.

"We're looking at regional

efforts to try and connect the different systems," said John Orr,

long range project manager at ARC.

The plan focuses on five regional

systems; cross-regional thruways, HOV lanes and interchanges, express

bus and commuter rail, bicycle and pedestrian and smart corridors.

FultonCounty could see some

traffic relief with the focus of South Fulton Parkways becoming part of

the Intelligent Transportation Systems in the cross regional thruway portion

of the program.

The county would see an increase

of HOV lanes and would see express buses by 2030.

Orr could not provide a specific

list of projects, but ARC maps show a number of bicycle and pedestrian

paths planned for the county.

The county will probably also

see a number of its roads incorporate parts of the Intelligent Transportation

Systems. ARC officials said this process involves laying fiber optic cable

and having a better coordination of traffic signals.

The Mobility 2030 meeting runs

from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the community meeting room at Shannon Mall.