2019-08-06 S&O Agenda - Item 4 - Attachment 1 - Peregian Digital Hub E-newsletters

GovHack Prototype Turns Into Commercial Trial To
Ease Holiday Parking Congestion

Following the inaugural GovHack weekend hackathon held at the Hub in September, Noosa Council
contracted members of the winning team to take the traffic monitoring prototype they had built to a
commercial trial during the Christmas holiday period as part of the Go Noosa Transport initiative.

Local technologists Gary Swanepoel and Mic Black developed a solution which counted traffic flows into
and out of key parking zones to calculate parking availability and traffic congestion. Information was
relayed to mobile VMS (Variable Message Sign) Boards placed strategically around the Noosa Shire, to
display realtime parking availability and suggest alternative transport strategies during peak times. The
information was also made available via the Go Noosa website and mobile app.

Since going live in mid-December, the website has been utilised by more than 1000 people to view
parking capacity and road congestion in Noosa Heads. Website developer Gary Swanepoel said more
than half of all users had logged on to help them decide whether to drive or catch a bus.

"Feedback has been really good,” Mr Swanepoel said "We've had a lot of locals say they've been using
the free buses a lot more over the holidays and hardly using their car and that the live information has
really helped them 'break their routine'.”

Travellers can save the app to their phone via the website