2020-07-07 S&O Agenda - Item 1 - Attachment 1 - Go Noosa Initiatives Evaluation

Report

This report evaluates the initiatives undertaken as part of the Noosa Council endorsed peak
period traffic management trials known as the Go Noosa- Christmas 2019/20, and in turn,
provides commentary on the operational effectiveness, data obtained, feedback, value for
money and areas for improvement of each initiative.

A number of tools were used to evaluate the Go Noosa Trials including:

     •    Christmas & Easter Go Noosa Survey
     •    Traffic, Pedestrian and Parking Occupancy Survey – 3 Jan 2020
     •    Traffic sensors
     •    Go Noosa App data
     •    Traffic engineer observations
     •    Lions Park paid parking receipts
     •    Stakeholder anecdotal & observational feedback

It is acknowledged that behavioural change projects are difficult to evaluate given the lack of
control groups, challenge in obtaining data and variability in factors affecting behaviour, as
such, the evaluation is based on a review of available information compared to desired
outcomes and information obtained in previous years.


1.       Initiative - Free Buses

Noosa Council funds the Free Holiday Bus program as an incentive for residents and visitors
to not use the private car when travelling in Noosa during the peak holidays. In particular, the
Free Buses is a means of encouraging residents and visitors to the Noosa Heads area which
is typically constrained by private vehicle congestion. The Free Holiday Bus program has been
in operation since 2000 and is now considered synonymous with a visit to Noosa during the
peak holidays.

The following five Noosa-specific TransLink bus services were paid for by Noosa Council from
the Transport Levy and provided free to passengers from the 14th December 2019 to 27th
January 2020:
•    Route 626 – Tewantin to Sunrise Beach via Noosa Heads
•    Route 627 – Tewantin to Sunshine Beach via Noosa Heads
•    Route 628 – Noosa Parklands to Noosa Junction, via Noosa Civic
•    Route 629 – Tewantin to Noosa Junction via Noosa Civic
•    Route 632 – Noosa to Cooran via Cooroy and Pomona
The costs Noosa Council pays for the services are determined by TransLink on a ‘loss of
revenue’ basis for five local TransLink routes (626,627,628,629,632).
Additional services have been introduced to supplement the existing TransLink services where
it was determined that keys areas within Noosa were not well served by the above services or
were part of trialling the Transport Strategy desired objective of a Noosa Style Bus including:
•    064 Peregian Beach to Noosa Heads bus
•    065 Noosa Heads to Noosaville ‘Go Noosa Loop Bus’
To operate the above additional services, Council obtains approval from the Director General
of the Department of Transport and Main Roads to operate a competing services to the
existing TransLink routes as this contravenes the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport)
Act 1994.
065 Go Noosa Loop bus