2019-02-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                              12 FEBRUARY 2019


   The ACT, NSW, SA, TAS and WA State School holidays are from 13 April to 28 April 2019.
Following on from the 2018/2019 Christmas trials these short term initiatives for the Easter
holiday period align with the 2017-2027 Transport Strategy principles and are designed to trial
managing peak period traffic whilst providing a positive travel experience for both residents and
visitors.
1.   Interim statistics on Go Noosa – Christmas 2018-19
As stated above, the Christmas holiday period (15 Dec 2018 – 28 Jan 2019) Peak Period Traffic
Management trials were still underway at the time of writing this report, however initial data is
summarised below:
   Current tally of patronage between 15 December 2018 and 20 January 2019 is 169,701.
     Patronage between 24 January and 28 January is to follow but based on the daily average
     the total it is expected to exceed 200,000.
   Free buses were well patronised with over 90% of passengers either very satisfied or
     satisfied with their bus trip.
   In 2017-18 the Xmas Free Holiday Buses ran for 11 days with a total patronage of 45,725.
     By comparison, the same 11 days in 2018-19 had a total patronage of 64,506, equating to
     a growth of over 41%.
   Approximately 69% of survey respondents would have made their trip by car if the buses
     were not free.
   Where applicable, 80% of survey respondents said the digital road-side information boards,
     showing car parking capacity in Noosa Heads helped to inform their travel choices.
   Approximately 70% of survey respondents found the car parking and bus signage around
     Noosa Junction helpful and easy to follow.
   Noosa Junction was identified by survey respondents as the preferred Park & Ride
     location.
   The top five means by which people found out about the free buses included: Street
     banners on power poles, a sign at the bus stop, they caught a free bus last year, roadside
     digital variable message signs, and the newspaper.
   Use of the Flexilink and Council Cabs services over the Christmas trials was consistent
     with the regular patronage.
   Over 1000 people downloaded the Go Noosa App website which is an adjunct to the
     information management system providing advice on car parking availability and other
     sustainable modes of transport.
   The Noosa Heads Lions Park car park was operational for 26 days and generated
     $133,520 with 40% of the parking revenue going to the Tewantin Noosa Heads Lions Club.
Data is being collected from a range of sources including:
   Bus patronage data from Sunbus (final tally yet to be provided)
   Traffic counts
   Customer feedback surveys (closing 8 February 2019)
   Website
   Facebook
   Open source data
The data will be collated and analysed to evaluate and provide insights into the trials and identify
where further improvements can be made which will be provided in a further report to Council.
2.   Go Noosa peak period traffic management trials – Easter 2019
The Go Noosa – Easter trials aim to build on the momentum of the Christmas peak period traffic
management trials previously endorsed by Council to further test some of the initiatives and
obtain more data for analysis.



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