The Atlanta Metropolitan Area is growing at a clip of almost 100,000 people a year and Forsyth County has doubled its population since 1990. Most of us have moved into Forsyth County during the last twenty years and about half of us moved in since 1990.

The growth has been so rapid recently that the infrastructure cannot keep pace with the growth. Roads get more and more crowded, water is becoming a more precious commodity, schools are being added at a dramatic pace, sewer service is strained or nonexistent, commutes to work are almost unbearable for many, taxes are increasing and our air fails to meet minimum standards.

Our quality of life is going down hill and will continue its downward slide unless we do a better job of matching required infrastructure improvements with the growth. Either by adding infrastructure faster or by slowing growth, or both.

The focus of this article is transportation. We have serious transportation problems. Anyone who travels during the rush hour understands that because of gridlock, stop and go traffic, reduced safety, raw nerves, frustration and wasted time. We need more roads, but we depend on federal money to fund a large part of our road building program. Those funds are frozen for the Atlanta Metro area because the area is not meeting air quality standards and we have no plan for meeting the standards. But, our population continues to grow putting more and more cars on the road and aggravating the already dreadful traffic situation.

It seems the conclusion is that cars are the biggest culprit in producing the poor quality air. Maybe that is correct, but I would like to see objective study results that display the proportion of poor air produced by cars, trucks, other motor vehicles, electric power plants, industry and others. We should be sure we have the problem well defined before we try to solve it.

The air quality problem has caused a lot of attention to be given to reducing car miles in Metro Atlanta. Region wide mass transit is one of the popular ideas to solve part of the problem, and it might if a significant portion of the people would use it. However, a mass transit solution is a long way off and in the interim more cars will increase the traffic problem.

Another idea being considered to improve air quality is denser development. The theory is that if people are forced to live closer together there will be fewer car miles per person because people will be living closer to their work, shopping, church, schools, entertainment and mass transit. Even if this greater people density would produce fewer car miles per person, wouldn't those car miles be concentrated in a smaller geography and perhaps produce more car miles per square mile? The increased density may make the air quality non-attainment area smaller, but might not those people in the non-attainment area have an even greater health risk?

When we talk about mass transportation as a solution to our traffic and air quality problems I am reminded of a recent POWELL cartoon, showing bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eye can see with everyone thinking; "We do need a good public transportation system...then there'll be more room for my car". As long as we are allowed a choice I believe that cartoon to be very prophetic. We might also envision a similar cartoon showing everyone thinking, "We do need denser development.... then there'll be more room for my car allowing an easier drive to my home in the low-density suburbs.