Transportation’s future discussed at open house

Published 1:36 pm Monday, March 17, 2025

By Jack Dobbs

Widening projects along state and federal roads and expansions of Bowling Green’s biking paths and greenways are just a few of the proposed projects that were on display Thursday night at the Sloan Convention Center as the Bowling Green and Warren County Metropolitan Planning Organization displayed its 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan to the public.

Ben Peterson, head of the City County Planning Commission, said the input gathered from the public Thursday will help identify which projects should be prioritized going forward.

“We’ve got $1 billion worth of need and about $100 million every two years to spend on it,” Peterson said. “We really have to prioritize those projects.”

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Easels were set up at the convention center and visitors could view different ideas and proposals in an open-house format.

The 2050 MTP is a comprehensive look at transportation needs in Warren County over the next 25 years. Updates to the plan are required by law and made every five years.

Nashville-based consulting group Gresham Smith has been working with the MPO on the plan, and has identified nearly 100 potential projects within Warren County.

Work on the MTP kicked off in November last year. Carroll Duckworth, MPO coordinator, told the Daily News then that there were hopes to learn “what’s valuable and what’s needed” the most.

A completed final draft of the plan is expected to come out in August of this year.

Peterson said among the most identified issues with transportation was congestion, calling it the “number one issue.”

“Getting stuck in traffic, people don’t like that, I don’t like that,” he said. “It’s congestion and mobility, being able to move through all parts of town in a reliable manner.”

For areas of high congestion, Peterson said consultants have looked at different data including collisions and time delays, and then recommendations are made.

“Ideally, you would attack the areas that have the worst problems first,” he said. “It includes everything from our major corridors to new roads and just spot improvements at different intersections.”

Support for the expansion of non-car-based transportation infrastructure was another finding. Krystalin Thompson, a Bowling Green resident, spoke on her need for bicycling routes.

“I’m a commuter cyclist,” she said. “I cycle everyday to work, I’ve been doing so for the past five or six years now, and (I) just have a vested interest in knowing about transportation.”

Steven Sawyer, another city resident, said the expansion of biking routes in the city would help cut down on automobile congestion, and voiced his support for expanded greenway paths.

“I would love to see a greenway connecting all the major areas together,” he said. “I would also love for (more) bike lanes to be put in for more people to bike places.

“Both of those things combat congestion on roads and both of those things also improve the health and wellbeing of people,” he said.

Turnout Thursday was low, Peterson will admit, so future in-person, open house style sessions like this are up in the air. He said outreach will continue though, with a focus on online-based input.

“We’re going to record a video that kind of goes over (the) boards that were at that meeting, and then we have that interactive map, and that will be a live, interactive input opportunity,” he said.

For more information on the 2050 MTP, visit warrenpc.org.

Jack covers city government for the Daily News. Originally from Simpson County, he attended Western Kentucky University and graduated in 2022 with a degree in journalism.

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