Help Council put the brakes on traffic congestion

Council’s draft plan to better manage traffic into the future opens for public comment from May 24 until June 14.

The Noosa Transport Plan 2016–2036 includes a 20-year vision to change the way we move, a 10-year strategy for local transport planning and a five-year action plan.

Residents can comment on all three at Council's YourSay Noosa website, as well as upcoming public YourSay events on the issue.

The consultation calls for discussion about key issues such as a parking strategy, park-and-ride programme, active transport, pathway, road network and public transport improvements, plus a behaviour-change programme to reduce car use.

Council’s Planning and Infrastructure Director Martin Drydale said congestion seen on parts of Noosa’s road network at peak times could become the norm, without efforts to curb growth in the number of vehicles on the roads.

“We can’t keep building bigger roads to accommodate more and more traffic, nor can we continually upgrade intersections to handle heavier traffic flow. The costs to ratepayers will be enormous and we’ll end up with traffic lights, flyovers and other big city infrastructure that our community has fought hard, for many years, to avoid,” Mr Drydale said.

“To avoid six lane roads, traffic lights, and future gridlock we need a plan that achieves a reduction in vehicle use and provides practical alternative travel options,” Mr Drydale said.

“If every resident used an alternative form of transport to get to work or school, even once per month, then we have some hope of reducing the need for bigger roads.”

Mr Drydale said input from a community consultation in January helped shape the draft plan and Council appreciated residents’ participation.

“That input has been helpful. We know, for example, that some residents feel public transport access and frequency is insufficient, not just in peak holiday times, but even when it comes to accessing key precincts on weekends,” he said.

Comments can be emailed to mail@noosa.qld.gov.au, sent via post to PO Box 141 Tewantin QLD 4565 or online via Council's YourSay Noosa website. Copies of the draft plan are available online and for viewing at Noosaville and Cooroy Libraries. Council officers will be on hand to answer questions at scheduled times.

Council will provide information ‘pop-ups’ at Cooroy Library (manned on 31 May) and Noosaville Library (manned on 2 June) and the mobile library. Residents can also have a say at a world café-style Your Say event at Noosa Leisure Centre on 4 June, between 8am and 12 noon.

23 May 2016