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GO NOOSA TRANSPORT INITIATIVES 2023/24 EVALUATION AND 2024/25 IMPLEMENTATION · Attachment 1 - Go Noosa - Car Park Tech Trial 202324 Evaluation
GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
Attachment 1: Car Park Tech Trial 2023/24 Evaluation
Background
The bustling Hastings Street precinct experiences a significant influx of vehicular traffic particularly
during the peak holiday season from Christmas to New Year's. The daily vehicle counts entering the
precinct during this period averages over 14,000 per day, underscoring the area's popularity and the
resultant demand for parking spaces.
During these peak times, the existing parking infrastructure reaches its full capacity, notably early in
the day, often before 9am and stays at a peak until 3pm. Prior to COVID the peak was experienced
at around 10am and subsided much quicker. Traffic data obtained in 2021, identified that there were
25 days per year where Noosa Heads experienced a high level of congestion, and it is expected to
grow to 41 days per year by 2031. This saturation leads to considerable congestion, with overflow
traffic queueing over Noosa Drive Hill, to the Junction, and along Noosa Parade to Quamby Place.
The common cause of this congestion is the continuous circulation of motorists in search of available
parking, and people double parking whilst waiting for people to leave.
In response to this challenge, a car park technology trial was initiated. The trial aimed to provide
real-time parking information to motorists enroute to the Noosa Heads precinct. The objective was
to mitigate congestion by assisting motorists to make informed decisions about entering the busy
Noosa Heads precinct by car, and influence behaviours by encouraging the use of alternative
transport options, such as park-and-ride bus services, thereby reducing the number of vehicles
entering the precinct and queuing for parking spaces.
The trial, exploratory in nature, was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology to
inform motorist behaviour, provide valuable parking data insights and test the capability of the use
for law enforcement.
It is important to note that this trial did not involve paid parking. Instead, it utilised number plate
recognition technology to gather data on parking duration, frequency of visits, origin of visitors, and
the potential for future enforcement applications. The insights gained demonstrate car park
technology will significantly enhance operational efficiency, particularly for the Local Laws team,
allowing them to allocate resources to other areas of need, and improve safety by reducing face to
face interactions. The technology also provides a continuous set of valuable information that will help
inform the parking management plan and future strategies.
Data management throughout the trial strictly adhered Council's Privacy Policy, the Information
Privacy Act 2009, and the Public Records Act 2002, ensuring compliance with legal standards and
public expectations of privacy.
Implementation
The trial included the installation of eight temporary Variable Message Sign (VMS) boards, which
displayed real-time information for all six public car parks in the Hastings Street precinct. Each car
park was numbered (for those from outside the shire) and named (for locals who new the car parks
by name). A map of each location along with real-time parking information for the Noosa Heads
precinct was available on Noosa Council’s website.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
The messaging strategy for the VMS boards was twofold: the outer boards presented combined
information for all car parks with one side of the screen advising motorists on where to park and ride
the free shuttle bus to Hastings St, while those positioned closer to the precinct provided detail on
each individual car park's status. Please see Images 1 and 2 VMS Board Messaging – Inner and
Outer.
Image 1: VMS Board Messaging – Outer Images 2: VMS Board Messaging – Inner
The VMS boards were placed in strategic locations to capture motorists on the roads in before the
park and ride locations and the inner boards were placed before the last turn around location and
where traffic began to slow/queue, so motorists had time to read and make an informed decision to
not proceed into the precinct by car. Please see Image 3: VMS Board and Car Park Locations.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
Image 3 - VMS boards and car park locations
Key
Blue - Markers Outer VMS boards
Red - Markers inner VMS boards
Yellow – Six car park locations
Results
The trial was in place over 38 days during the 2023/24 Christmas holidays from the 9 December to
21 January 2024. There were 35 reported instances of downtime, over the entire period, due to solar
recharging issues requiring data resets, count resetting issues and the opening of Lions Paid
Parking. Each instance of downtime generally only affected one camera at a time.
Over the trial period, 189,013 vehicles entered the public car parks on the days where there was no
technology downtime.
Locations had common entry time profiles, most filling by early morning and receding later in the
day. Peak periods are between 9am and 3pm. As expected, the Main Beach (next to the Surf Club),
Maze (Cnr Noosa Pde and Noosa Drive) and Lions Park exceeded occupancy almost constantly,
with the Woods/Noosa Spit and National Park reaching maximum occupancy during most days.
When the maximum occupancy is exceeded, unnecessary vehicle visits contribute to overall
congestion. A key objective of the trial was to minimise this issue by maintaining occupancy below
90% at all times, ensuring 10% availability and allowing reasonable accessibility.
Each location had significant vehicles entering car parks while full, showing that even with the
signage, on most days about 30%-50% more people looked to park, than there was parking
available. Cars continuously entered the car park in search of the elusive car space even though
the parks are at capacity. Indicating a solution such as boom gates may be beneficial to restricting
access once full, to keep vehicles moving. A manual trial of this has occurred over the last two
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
years, where the traffic controllers have placed car park full signs at the Lions Park and Main
Beach car parks when full, which was deemed beneficial.
Key trial insights about vehicles entering the car parks
• Approximately 44% of vehicles only visited once during the 38-day period, 40% visited
twice. This reflects the challenge of quickly educating infrequent visitors of how to navigate
an unknown parking area and informing them of alternative parking locations, such as the
AFL Grounds Park and Ride.
• Approximately 16% visited three or more times, more likely to be Shire residents, a
relatively small percentage.
• A micro percentage <1% visited in a pattern resembling Hastings Street worker or regular
local usage.
The car park tech trial revealed approximately 134 overstays per day in timed car parks, leading to
a reduction in available spaces due to decreased turnover. This situation necessitates considering
enforcement measures and presents an opportunity to collect approximately $10,000 in daily
revenue. This revenue could be allocated to improve communications, thereby reducing
undesirable behaviour from first-time visitors, and improve compliance with parking regulations.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
Data
Figure 1: Average occupancy per hour from 6am to 9pm by location (for the entire
period)
Note: The red line indicates the maximum occupancy of the car park.
However, for Lions Park only, the red line includes the maximum occupancy for when paid
parking was open in the green space, while the yellow line indicates the maximum occupancy
when the paid parking was not operational.
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GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
*Please note: The Main Beach car park average occupancy over the entire period has been reduced
and is not reflective of the actual car parking numbers due to the closure period for Main Beach
People’s Park. The graph has been included for transparency and consistency with the other data.
Figure 2: Average entries per hour from 6am to 9pm by location (for the entire period)
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
*Please note: The Main Beach car park average occupancy over the entire period has been
reduced and is not reflective of the actual car parking numbers due to the closure period for Main
Beach People’s Park. The graph has been included for transparency and consistency with the
other data.
Figure 3: Average vehicle stays by location (for the entire period)
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
Figure 4: Average vehicle stays per site per entry hour (from 6AM to 10PM).
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
*Please note: The Main Beach car park average vehicle stay has taken into consideration
downtime e.g. Main Beach People’s Park closure.
Community feedback
Community feedback on the trial was sought through an online survey promoted through Council’s
Facebook page and an on-ground survey conducted on the last weekend of the trial.
The survey identified the following:
• 80% of respondents saw the signage
• 50% said the signs impacted where they parked
• 40% said they planned to stay for 2 hours
• 50% said they planned to stay up to 4 hours
• 70% saw the trial as favourable or had feedback on areas to improve such as reliability,
readability of the signs and location.
• 20% did not agree with ratepayers funding the trial.
Cost
The total cost of the trial was approximately $135,000 ex gst. This included the network connectivity,
camera technology, VMS boards, staff and consultancy costs.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT AUGUST 2024
GO NOOSA Transport Initiatives 23/24 Evaluation and 24/25 Implementation
Next steps
The data will provide valuable information to inform the Parking Management Plan. The trial
identified an opportunities to:
• Improve how law enforcement is managed in key areas, including addressing overstays.
• Investigate the introduction of timed parking to increase vehicle turnover in busy precincts.
• Implement a user pays parking system, as less than 1% of vehicles parking resembled a
pattern. Eighty four percent of people entering the car park only visited once or twice,
indicating most people were visiting the area.
• The initial trial plan included digital signage at car park entry locations to advise parkers on
car park capacity, so they could decide whether to enter or not. Due to budget constraints,
this signage was only implemented at the roadways entering the area. It is assumed that
providing this information at each car park may further reduce search behaviour and keep
vehicles moving.
• During the trial, the design, location, and timing of signage indicating a "FULL" state were
improved. Enhanced signage styles, particularly those more favourable to first-time visitors,
are expected to improve outcomes in the future.
Stage two of the trial will not be progressed until after the Parking Management Plan.
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