2016-02-02 I&S Committee - Item 4 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Traffic Study

be about 16,000 - 20,000 vehicles per day, depending on the amount of “friction” (access
points, on-street parking pedestrian crossings, etc.) along the road. Notably, Poinciana
Avenue, Memorial Avenue, Beckmans Road, and the southern end of David Low Way are all
approaching that capacity limit. Other parts of the road network are at or approaching capacity
as a result of intersection capacity constraint, which is the typical capacity inhibitor within an
urban road network.

As a basis for intersection capacity assessment, traffic counts were undertaken at a large
number of intersections throughout Noosa. Some pre-existing traffic counts from 2014 were
utilised, but the vast majority of traffic counts were undertaken specifically for this study in April
/ May 2015 at specific times as described later in this Section.

Permanent traffic counter output was interrogated to firstly determine the busiest times of the
day and week in April and May so that the new traffic surveys could be undertaken at
appropriate times of the week in the most efficient manner possible. For example, in some
areas the busiest periods were clearly at the morning and evening school and commuter peaks,
whereas at other locations the middle of the day on the weekday was potentially busiest, and at
other locations the busiest periods occurred on the weekend (Saturday).

The timing of new traffic counts was coordinated to ensure the surveys were not undertaken
during the period of closure of Walter Hay Drive due to roadworks, which significantly impacted
traffic flows throughout the coastal area during that time.

With the new intersection traffic count data being obtained in April and May, outside of the
school holiday periods, the permanent traffic counter information was also interrogated to
determine how traffic flows in April and May compared to those at the busiest times of the year,
such as the Christmas school holiday period and events such as the Noosa triathlon. For that
purpose, peak hour and peak daily traffic flows were examined for each permanent counter
location in the week of the Noosa triathlon, the last week in November (before school holidays),
the week before Christmas, the peak day in the Christmas week, the week after New Year, the
first week in February (after school holidays), and the first week of May. This enabled May
traffic flows at each permanent traffic count location to be related to the traffic flows at that
location at the busiest times of year. Note that peak daily traffic flows at the majority of
locations occurred in the Christmas week, although some occurred in the week of the Noosa
triathlon.

Interestingly, the impacts of holiday and special event periods on large parts of the coastal area
road network are relatively minor, but those impacts increase substantially the closer you are
geographically to the main Noosa Heads tourist strip along the coast and on the southern side
of the Noosa River. This is illustrated in Figure 3 which has been derived from the analysis of
the permanent traffic count information to identify three Zones - A, B and C within the coastal
area within which the variation between the daily traffic in May (when the new intersection
surveys were undertaken), and the daily traffic at the peak times of the year, are similar to each
other.

Figure 3 shows that in Zone A there is a large variation between daily traffic during peak
holiday / event periods and traffic at other times of the year, with May daily traffic being
approximately 65% of daily traffic at the busiest times of year. For Zone B the variation
between peak and off-peak periods is less than Zone A at about 85%, and within Zone C
(which is the largest part of the coastal area) the impacts of holiday / event periods are the
least, with daily traffic flows in May being about 95% of daily traffic flows that occur at the
busiest times of the year.

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