Friday, June 27, 2003
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Friday, June 27, 2003 |
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Transportation plan discussed in ARC meeting By LINDSAY BIANCHI
In the not-too-distant future there will be over 2 million more people living and working in the 13-county metro Atlanta area. Periods of traffic congestion could last anywhere from one to six hours, even after a nearly $40 billion dollar investment in new transportation projects. Facing these alarming projections, the Atlanta Regional Commission held the fifth of a dozen regional meetings Tuesday night at the community room at Shannon Mall in Union City. In trying to accommodate the buildup of traffic and at the same time protect the quality of the air and water, the ARC is gearing up for its biggest challenge to date. "What are we going to do when we have 6 million people in this region?" asked Tom Weyandt, director of comprehensive planning for the ARC. Set to begin development in early 2005, the new plan, dubbed "Mobility 2030," attempts to solve these problems with a variety of short-term and long-term goals. While some of these solutions concentrate on upgrading and extending existing services such as MARTA to Fulton Industrial Boulevard, ARC officials are also looking at other transit options. Officials said an express bus service that would reach to surrounding counties, including South Fulton and Coweta counties, could start next year. Using HOV lanes and up-to-date systems of transport, fare collection and route structures, this new mode of metropolitan travel could help smooth out the bumpy road ahead, Weyandt pointed out. The comprehensive plan put forth by the ARC also encompasses an extended HOV network for all major interstates, including Interstate 85 in South Fulton and Coweta counties, as well as 2,400 more linear miles of bicycle and pedestrian pathways through densely populated areas. The development of a grid system of east/west, north/south multilane roadways to circulate traffic around the outlying Atlanta area was yet another iinnovative proposal offered by ARC officials. The commission will prepare their second draft of the plan by September after receiving comments and suggestions from all interested parties and finalize the plan in November. A more constrained outline, including cost estimates, will be developed next year and projects will be given priorities for construction. ARC officials plan to stage a similar meeting in Coweta County July 7, but have not yet released the location and time for the meeting.
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