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

NOOSA TRAFFIC STUDY TO 2036 - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As part of the process of preparing a new Noosa planning scheme, and to inform the new Local
Government Infrastructure Plan, this traffic study has been commissioned to assess road
system upgrading requirements within Noosa Shire to the year 2036.

Importantly, given the 20-year time horizon to 2036, it will be necessary to regularly (every 4-5
years) review and revise this traffic study to ensure recommended infrastructure improvements
correctly align with actual and future population growth and evolving future traffic projections.
This will also allow Council’s forward infrastructure planning and capital works program to more
accurately reflect the actual demand required for the road network.

Subsequent supporting studies will also be necessary to assess the future public transport,
pedestrian, and cyclist requirements of the network. In this respect, greater uptake of public
transport, walking and cycling will reduce traffic demand on the Noosa road network and
reduce the extent and cost of infrastructure upgrading that would otherwise be required.
Critically this is also reflective of the aims of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve that encompasses
Noosa Shire, which under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) aims to promote living in a healthy and sustainable way.

This traffic study has adopted a similar philosophy to that adopted in the preceding “Coastal
Area Traffic and Transport to 2016” study prepared by Beard Traffic Engineering in August
2002. In particular, this assessment has been undertaken in the absence of area wide road
network modelling, and has been undertaken on the basis of applying growth factors to existing
traffic volumes.

An important input to the study is adherence to the strategic traffic management philosophy
adopted in Noosa over a long period of time, of maintaining a free flowing road system, based
on a network having roundabouts at major junctions.

There are two distinct parts to the road system within the Noosa Shire area. The more heavily
populated coastal area comprising Tewantin, Noosaville, Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beach, and
extending along the coast to Peregian Beach, comprises a major road system that is
administered solely by Noosa Council (without any State-controlled roads). Beyond that
coastal area, the major road system within Noosa Shire comprises State-controlled roads
administered by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR). This study, focused on
the Council-controlled network, has therefore concentrated on the coastal area, but it has also
assessed critical locations on the State-controlled network, even though responsibility for
funding upgrading at those critical locations rests with the State government.

Future traffic growth in the Noosa area will be driven primarily by population growth, as well as
by new commercial developments. The Queensland State government has supplied population
projections for the Noosa Shire area and they indicate low rates of growth. Growth rates in
employment are also projected to be low.

Because intersection capacities essentially define the traffic carrying capacity of an urban road
network, extensive traffic counts were undertaken throughout the road system as a basis for
intersection analysis using the SIDRA intersection analysis software program, following
application of growth factors.

The study concludes that the existing Noosa road network can be suitably upgraded to
satisfactorily accommodate traffic flow projections to the 2036 design year, while retaining the
free flowing roundabout based system, without new fully controlled signalised intersections.

14.s.53.7