2020-01-13 GC Agenda - Item 10 - Attachment 1 - Report on the Sustainable Tourism Stakeholder Reference Group

There are a number of issues relating to Noosa’s transport problem that need to be considered. The first is,
again, one of perception. Often residents are inclined to make sweeping statements such as, “You can’t drive
into Hastings Street/Main Beach anymore.” In fact, traffic tends to back up on Noosa Drive and Noosa Parade
during daylight hours in peak holiday seasons, also on an increasing number of weekends and when events
occur. The rest of the time there is arguably no significant congestion on these roads.
It is worth noting that, in spite of some residents believing that they can’t get into Hastings Street during peak
season, Council surveys have revealed that in peak summer holidays, between 30% and 37% of the people in
Hastings Street hail from within the Noosa Shire. In other words, a third of people in the precinct, even at the
busiest times, are locals.
There is also a belief that congestion should be a relatively easy problem to fix, with a straight-forward solution.
Three years of research and the advice of many expert consultants has revealed that this is far from the truth.
Making more car parking does not reduce congestion. Indeed, more parking only encourages more drivers to
assume they will find a car space and thus they are encouraged to take their cars into centres. As has been
found across the world, increasing car spaces only results in more congestion. To put that another way, the
more you encourage people to drive their cars, the more they will do so, and thus the more traffic ends up on
the road.
Research over peak holiday seasons has revealed that, although there are times when the parking spaces in the
Main Beach precinct are full, even on the busiest days there is still some parking capacity at Noosa Junction. At
no time is all the parking at Noosa Junction in use.
Most interesting has been the lack of impact on congestion arising from transport solutions that encourage
more people to use alternative transport. For example, during the summer holidays in 2019-20, regarding travel
into Main Beach, bus use increased by 41%, bicycle use by 27%, pedestrian traffic by 7%, yet the impact on
traffic congestion was negligible. All of that success getting people to use alternative transport only decreased
vehicle congestion by 2%. In other words, encouraging more people to use active or public transport simply
increased the number of people in the precinct without having any substantial impact on reducing car
congestion.
There is a theory that congestion is itself self-levelling. Drivers will accommodate congestion up until the
frustration outweighs the rewards. Thus congestion by itself is something of a deterrent to driving. The corollary
is that, where congestion is effectively decreased, the newly created capacity may simply be taken up by other
drivers until such time as the intolerance for congestion is again reached. To put that another way, creating
more capacity on the road may simply encourage more drivers to fill that capacity.
Without some actual limit on vehicles entering a precinct, congestion may not be able to be resolved simply by
encouraging alternative transport use.
The concept of paid parking has also been considered by both Council and the STSRG. Expert advice to Council
has revealed that paid parking does not act as a deterrent to drivers. Rather, drivers factor the cost of parking
into their trip. According to expert advice, nowhere in Australia has paid parking reduced congestion. However,
what paid parking can do is raise revenue to be applied to other transport solutions. If paid parking were to be
introduced in the Main Beach/Hastings St precinct, consideration could be given to making it free or at a
discounted rate for residents.
Transport solutions are inevitably going to include better public transport. Presentations to the STSRG have
explained that public transport in Noosa remains the province of the State Government via Translink. Legal
advice to Council has identified that Council cannot introduce any public transport that competes with, or takes
business away from, the existing State controlled transport services. Not only can’t Council introduce a service
that uses existing routes, but Council also can’t introduce a service that uses public infrastructure such as bus
stops.
Use of the river for mass transport has been considered but is impeded by a number of issues. Firstly, the main
wharf terminals at Tewantin Marina and at Hastings Street are not public, but rather private wharfs.
Furthermore, there is very limited capacity for parking at Tewantin, let alone other possible stops along the
route. Cost of implementing a river service is also considered to be prohibitive.

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