After studies by two consultants and changes to its routes and personnel, Bowling Green’s GO bg Transit service seemed to be hitting a higher gear this time last year.

Ridership, which had plummeted after route changes suggested by national consulting firm WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff were implemented in 2017, was rebounding after some tweaks to those routes.

For the 12 months that ended Feb. 29 of last year, in fact, GO bg Transit had total ridership of 110,953, an increase of 18.6% from the same period the previous year.

Carroll Duckworth, who was hired in August 2018 as director of transportation services for the Community Action of Southern Kentucky agency that operates GO bg Transit under contract with the city of Bowling Green, was encouraged by the progress even as consultant Michael Baker International was doing a $125,000 study involving GO bg Transit and Western Kentucky University’s Topper Transit.

“We’ve seen an increase in ridership simply because we’re listening to our riders,” Duckworth said at the time.

Then the transit service hit a speed bump called the coronavirus pandemic, leading to roughly a 50% drop in ridership and to a perceived need to again listen to riders and other stakeholders.

Now, after some management changes were implemented as a result of the previous Michael Baker International study, MBI has again been hired by the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Planning Organization to do a $75,000 study that involves seeking public input.

The consultant plans an online public meeting Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Those interested in participating can join the meeting at the gotomeet.me/RocklandConsulting website.

Input on public transit in Bowling Green can also be given by taking a survey at the surveymonkey.com/r/GObgTransit website. The survey site will be active through Feb. 23.

The meeting and survey, along with information gathered from meetings with local stakeholders, will be used to put together what MBI’s Jeff Moore calls a transit development plan.

“We’re looking at how we can improve GO bg Transit,” Moore said. “We’re looking at ridership, routes and connections to bus shelters and other parts of the transit network.”

Brent Childers, the city of Bowling Green’s director of neighborhood and community services, said now is a good time to do another study while the transit system is in something of a pause.

“With the pandemic severely impacting ridership, now is a good time to take a look at our public transit system,” Childers said. “We believe the need for public transit will only increase as we become more urbanized. But that presents challenges. We need to grow the system and increase ridership.”

That echoes the goals of the previous MBI study, which led to the hiring in December of Robert Gil as the city’s transit manager. An employee of the Texas-based RAPT Dev USA transit management company that also manages Topper Transit, Gil sees public input as an important aspect of this latest study.

“The main push is to generate public involvement in this process,” Gil said. “We want them to be heard.”

Moore expects the study to be completed and recommendations to be presented by May.

Gil hopes the transit development plan “maximizes access” to the transit system while creating efficiencies and making the best use of public dollars.

GO bg Transit operates on about $1.2 million per year in funding from the Federal Transit Administration, $430,000 from the city of Bowling Green and ridership revenue.

The city has also been approved to receive more than $3 million in federal Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act money to be used for public transit.