BAR HARBOR – Acadia National Park and other Mount Desert Island groups are moving forward with plans to reduce vehicle traffic from Bangor to MDI by building a major new off-island transportation center and possibly creating 10 park-and-ride facilities throughout the region.

Planners from Acadia, Bar Harbor and other MDI interests discussed their options during a two-hour meeting Thursday as they grappled with the most vexing problems facing the growing tourism region: too much traffic and not enough parking.

There are three separate efforts under way: Acadia is analyzing sites for a major new visitor center; Bar Harbor officials are trying to find ways to free up parking for tourists; and a consortium of major employers on the island has commissioned a year-round transit study.

“We have the challenge of constantly reminding ourselves that we need to look toward not this year’s problem, but what the future holds for us,” said traffic engineer Tom Crikelair, who has been hired separately by Acadia and the consortium to find solutions to the traffic problems.

The various groups met Thursday under the auspices of MDI Tomorrow, a group of municipal and business leaders that is developing a 10-year plan for the island.

Crikelair said that while MDI residents welcome the prosperity generated by Acadia visitors and other tourists, “there is a price of success, which is more and more and more cars.”

The options being considered include:

. Increasing bus service for commuters from Bangor, Ellsworth, Hancock, Cherryfield and Milbridge. Riders would pay a monthly fee to guarantee them a bus seat each day. The Jackson Laboratory remains the biggest employer on MDI and the one with the most pressing problems in getting their workers to the lab.

. Building a major new Acadia visitor center, probably in Trenton, where people could get a variety of services before catching a bus to the park or other island attractions. The new center could include a park museum, two film screens to show park attractions and history, a picnic area, restrooms and many other amenities.

Len Bobinchock, Acadia deputy superintendent, said park officials have decided they will need to build two new visitor centers – a large one off the island and a smaller center closer to the park to serve overnight visitors.

“No matter what we do,” he said, “we will need two contact points” for visitors.

Park officials favor building the bigger visitor center off the island to reduce the number of vehicles crossing the Trenton Bridge.

. Increasing bus service from the Island Explorer, including more cross-island runs and a shuttle to Bar Harbor specifically for Jackson Lab and College of the Atlantic employees.

Crikelair said a friend of his recently invited him to visit Sanibel Island in Florida “to see the future of MDI – an hour and a half to get on and an hour and a half to get off and bumper-to-bumper traffic.” Like MDI, there is just one road onto the popular Florida island.

Even today, the traffic flowing from Bangor to the west and Milbridge to the east, all converging at the Trenton Bridge, can cause bumper-to-bumper traffic jams. Even minor traffic accidents on Route 3, the only road to MDI, cause so much backup that many people turn around and head elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Bar Harbor officials are formulating their own plan to possibly construct a park-and-ride facility close to the downtown to provide much-needed parking away from the clogged downtown district.

Bar Harbor officials say they frequently hear from people who will not bother coming into town to shop, eat or sightsee because the traffic is so bad and the parking so scarce. Others say the traffic and parking problems, combined with the finite space available for new development on MDI, will mean that new hotels will be built off the island.

A major part of Bar Harbor’s parking problems can be traced not to tourists, but directly to the businesses that want the tourist traffic. Employees working for downtown businesses take 50 percent to 60 percent of the 2,300 parking spots available around town, according to Robert Collier, chairman of the Bar Harbor Traffic and Parking Committee.

Collier and other committee members think a park-and-ride facility within walking distance to the downtown could provide space for employees and others to park. The Island Explorer bus service also would be available to shuttle people around the island.

The good news, Crikelair and others agreed Thursday, is that the different groups – all with different needs – are working together because they realize they’re all caught in the traffic jam together.

“We’re on the same page. We just need to continue working together,” said Dick Cough, a member of both MDI Tomorrow and the Bar Harbor traffic committee.

Officials expect to firm up their plans in the next couple of months. Acadia hopes to have a final draft of a preliminary plan by December. The Bar Harbor committee is preparing to turn over its recommendations to the Town Council, and Jackson Lab and other major businesses on the island expect a final proposal on the year-round transit study by September.