2013 Park n' Ride Survey

[Golliwog]

They had signs on the ramp up to the platform at FG this afternoon about this.
http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Travel-and-transport/Public-transport.aspx

2013 park 'n' ride survey
This project is part of our work to understand how you use our park 'n' ride facilities, the current levels of demand and the future park 'n' ride infrastructure needed across south-east Queensland. It builds on previous surveys undertaken in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Between 8 and 24 October 2013, our contractor Traffic Data & Control will visit all bus, train and ferry park 'n' ride facilities in south-east Queensland to count vehicles and collect number plate information. The contractor will display signage when they are present at park 'n' ride facilities.

Why is it needed and what are the benefits?
The data collected through the survey will assist in planning and improving public transport routes, services, infrastructure and customer information.

It will help ensure we understand the benefits of new infrastructure and its impacts on travel behaviour, as well as informing future works.

How will this affect me?
There will be no community impact, and no personal data such as name or street address will be viewed or recorded. Registration numbers will be recorded and matched with the vehicle's home postcode. The data contractor will destroy the collected data when the project is completed.

Further information
If you have questions or concerns regarding the 2013 park 'n' ride survey, please email planning.projects@tmr.qld.gov.au.

I know they've done it before, but I've never seen signage about it before. I guess they might have had a few questions about why they're wandering around the car park collecting number plate details.

[Set in train]

Yes, I have also seen this sign at Nerang Station. Sign was up as of last Wednesday.

Why they pay a contractor is beyond me, why can't the police with their number plate recognition technology grab the details themselves? Might pick up some revenue in the process, that's what I call a win win 

[techblitz]

noticed one of these @ redbank station too near the car-park gocard scanner.

[bcasey]

These surveys only really give a snapshot of what the usage is over a small amount of time.

Wouldn't it make more sense to install parking barriers that commuters can enter using their go-card (or whatever replaces it in the future), only charging people for the parking spot if they don't use public transport in a timely manner. This would hopefully discourage people who aren't using it for park'n'ride, as well as providing a rich data set (potentially in real-time) for tracking the occupancy of all of their park'n'rides.

Obviously it would require a bit of capital investment to install the gates and related IT infrastructure, and there would probably be technical issues with using go-card for this purpose, but ultimately I think this is a better idea than doing a survey every few years.

[Golliwog]

It wouldn't surprise me if they were using something the same as, or very similar to the number plate recognition technology used by the Police. I think there's a strong argument for moving the checking of rego and other vehicle checks back to the department and away from Police.

An issue to be considered with gating park n rides though is that if more development similar to the FG tavern occurs, you can't do it easily. If you're not aware, the parking underneath the FG tavern is owned by QR, not the tavern.

[Set in train]

Good points everyone. Perhaps many at Robina park in the station car park to attend the hospital next door?

I know GCCC's mythical 5000 spot PnR at Parkwood would be largely filled by GU/GCUH attendees if it existed.

Was near or on Olsen Av twice during daylight hrs today, both times witnessed uni students walking ridiculously long distances to enjoy 'free' parking and at 4pm, witnessed a pregnant woman crossing Olsen to the shops to leave in her car which she'd parked there and fortunately for her, had not been towed.

[DayboroStation]

It will be interesting to see the results of the survey.

My guess is that the results will find that a percentage of drivers are not driving to their nearest available park 'n' ride facility, but are driving further in to the city, and leaving their car in or near a park 'n' ride facility on the city fringe (to avoid paying dearer fares and lack of parking at outer suburban park 'n' ride facilities).

Also, the majority of park 'n' ride facilities are full on most days, so I wonder if the contractor will also read number plates on cars parked on adjacent streets and vacant parcels of land?

[longboi]

It will be interesting to see the results of the survey.

My guess is that the results will find that a percentage of drivers are not driving to their nearest available park 'n' ride facility, but are driving further in to the city, and leaving their car in or near a park 'n' ride facility on the city fringe (to avoid paying dearer fares and lack of parking at outer suburban park 'n' ride facilities).

Also, the majority of park 'n' ride facilities are full on most days, so I wonder if the contractor will also read number plates on cars parked on adjacent streets and vacant parcels of land?

Kind of defeats the purpose when you pay for petrol to get a cheaper fare. I have been known to drive to PT which is further than my closest train station, but purely because the frequency is better and has allowed me to get to certain appointments while avoiding parking fees.

As for surveying street parking, you would then need to start looking at street address details of registered vehicles to filter out residents, plus you have shoppers and business owners in some streets. Besides, if the contractor notes the time the park n rides become full each day, then they can (somewhat) extrapolate figures.
An adjoining vacant lot might be more straightforward.