2021-04-23 Special Meeting Agenda

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                                               23 APRIL 2021


Submission Topic   Detail
                   are being prioritised over repairs and maintenance and then waste fees are going up. Hectares
                   of the natural environment are being lost to developers to destroy for profit despite reports of the
                   biodiversity importance. Noosa coastal flora is special but in the wrong hands it will be gone. Buses
                   should be light electric and small and council should set its priorities for local ratepayers that live
                   here and pay the rates.

                   Email 3 – Emissions reductions and associated benefits of stronger adoption of e-bikes in Noosa
                   Shire.

                   SPECIFIC STRATEGY PROPOSAL
                   Council initiatives that demonstrate the environmental, social and financial benefits of everyday
                   use of e-bikes, and encouragement e-bike adoption by Noosa residents

                   OUR CONTEXT
                   1. We are residents of Peregian Beach, within Noosa Shire
                   2. In August 2019, we purchased two e-bikes locally, and have maintained a log of trips
                      undertaken since.
                   3. We believe that a simple Noosa Council strategy of publicising how we (and similar others)
                      have used our e-bikes could provide a powerful encouragement to other residents, particularly
                      older residents, to adopt e-bikes as a key, everyday travel option.
                   4. Our use of e-bikes was publicised in a January 2021 edition of Noosa Today also featuring
                      Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart.
                   5. In that newspaper item, we were quoted at length. In particular, we made the point that, in the
                      space of about fourteen months, we had used our e-bikes for 126 trips to the Peregian Village
                      shops, particularly the IGA supermarket. We see those trips as emblematic of a potentially
                      powerful initiative in e-bike use in Noosa Shire.
                   6. The key aspects of those trips are that:
                       Those trips replaced 126 trips that would have been undertaken using a petrol-powered
                           vehicle.
                       Each round trip was of only six kilometres, but we had previously baulked at riding
                           conventional bikes to Peregian Village because the return journey ends in a long,
                           significantly steep climb up the length of Lowry Street to our home in Calliandra Grove,
                           approximately 35 metres above sea level.
                       With the bikes fitted with soft ‘bags/panniers’, we can carry a sizeable load of groceries
                           etc, and can manage to ascend Lowry Street with a moderate effort, easily maintaining a
                           speed around 15kph.
                       Our use of e-bikes for these trips alone has eliminated petrol-driven travel of about 760km
                           over 18 months, or about 506km in a year.
                   7. We also use our e-bikes for many everyday trips - to swim squads at the Noosa Aquatic Centre
                      (NAC); to a casual teaching role at a Peregian Springs school; to book club meetings;
                      recreational rides as far as Mudjimba (south) and Tewantin (north).
                   8. Our combined total mileage of e-bike usage from August 2019 to March 2021 was 5,500km.

                   If even only one thousand Noosa Shire residents used e-bikes for their particular equivalent of our
                   trips to the local supermarket/shops (506km annually), that would amount to over half a million
                   kilometres of e-bike travel replacing petrol-fuelled travel. That calculation is based on only one
                   potential use of e-bikes, and does not refer at all to the other types of trips that Noosa citizens
                   would undertake in any year (as signalled for our context in point 7 above). We see the potential
                   benefits for Noosa Shire of encouraging Noosa citizens to - in their own individual ways – replicate
                   the ways we have modified our daily travel through adopting e-bikes.

                   The benefits go beyond reductions in fossil-fuel emissions.
                    The use of e-bikes reduces road/traffic congestion, reduces road maintenance/repair costs,
                      reduces the demand for car parking spaces at local retail/commercial/recreational hubs.
                    It encourages people to visit places where the challenge of finding a parking spot would usually
                      discourage them from visiting (shops, entertainment places, local markets, beach).
                    Bikes (e- or otherwise) also encourage social engagement: people riding bikes tend to chat
                      casually when they encounter each other, for example when parking their bikes outside the
                      local supermarket or café.
                    Current interest in e-bikes has promoted these types of random social conversations. (By
                      contrast, it’s probably rare for a car driver in a supermarket car park to strike up a random
                      conversation along the lines of ‘I notice you’ve driven a car here today. How interesting. Let’s
                      chat!’.)




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