KY: NeSmith says more public input needed on bus routes

City Commissioner Sharon NeSmith, who has been looking for ways to improve the city’s public transportation system, said she has found plenty of data on bus ridership and bus routes.

But what’s missing from the puzzle, NeSmith said Friday, is input from the public about what services they’d like from the public transit system.

“What I’m running into is I can find all kinds of numbers, but I can’t find a lot of feedback,” NeSmith said.

NeSmith, who is general manage for the Hampton Inn Downtown Owensboro/Waterfront, said a large number of hotel employees rely on city buses to get to their jobs.

Buses run 6 a.m. to 7:35 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Saturday. There’s no Sunday bus service. Buses don’t run most holidays.

NeSmith said she has had important workers stay at the hotel at least once, when bus service closed for a holiday would have kept employees from getting to the hotel for their shifts.

“I do listen to people, but they are the people in the range of my communication,” NeSmith said.

While employees who use the bus system are a source of ideas and feedback, there is little communication about what the general public wants, NeSmith said.

The MPO, which is part of the Green River Area Development District, attempted to gather comments on the bus system, but received only a few replies, NeSmith said

“That’s one of the things that disappointed me late last year,” NeSmith said.

Later NeSmith said the Metropolitan Planning Organization “conducted meetings all around town” in an attempt to get comment about public transportation issues, she said.

“I don’t think (they) got more than 10 to 12 comments,” NeSmith said.

NeSmith said her own concerns include the lack of bus service on most holidays, and the time it takes to transfer from one bus to another in order to make a round trip “in a reasonable amount of time.”

“It’s not unusual for people to say, ‘it’s an all-day affair to get to the doctor’s office or the grocery,’ ” using the bus service, NeSmith said.

Regarding holidays, NeSmith said, “I’m sure a lot of people would use a bus on July 4 to get to the fireworks.”

The bus system provided 321,703 individual trips in 2019, and then fell during the Covid pandemic, NeSmith said in an email.

Ridership has been increasing since the pandemic, and the system provided about 430,000 trips last year.

NeSmith, who studied transportation while obtaining her master’s degree, said it is difficult to suggest changes to the bus system without hearing from the public.

“I don’t have any data to say, ‘10% of the riderships wants this,’ ” NeSmith said.

NeSmith said people with opinions on the bus service, or ideas and concerns, can contact her at [email protected]. NeSmith’s office at City Hall can be reached at 270-687-8564.

NeSmith said, “I think it’s one of those things where it would be a small incremental changes at first,” if changes were made to the bus system.

“But it would grow.” she said.

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