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Factors influencing the use of local parks

University of British Columbia

The growth of large urban centres in Canada, at a time when the availability of leisure is increasing, has invested urban recreation facilities, such as parks, with a special importance. Although much research effort has been directed towards investigating and anlyzing the phenomenon of large scale rural outdoor recreation and park use, very little study has been undertaken on the subject of urban parks. This is ironical since the largest proportion of leisure time is in "small pieces", much of which can only be spent in the vicinity of the home. Also, for a large segment of urban residents such as young mothers, the poor, the old and children, non-urban parks and recreation facilities do not constitute a realistic alternative to local parks. Given the lack of study in the field of urban parks, planners have been forced to rely on planning tools of doubtful geneology and based on arbitrary assumptions. This study attempts to make a preliminary exploration of one element of the urban park system: the local park in a residential setting. It is based on a behavioural approach and analyses the use of local parks by the surrounding residents in order to ascertain the relationship between the physical variables (characteristics of parks) and the activity and population variables (the use of parks and the users of parks). The hypothesis guiding this study is as follows: The use of local parks is influenced by the physical characteristics of the parks and the population characteristics of the local area residents. The variables examined in detail are: size of park, facilities, supervision, accessibility of the park, on the one hand, and the frequency of park use, the activities conducted in the parks, the characteristics of the park users and their recreational preferences, on the other. A questionnaire survey was conducted in a single family, working class district of Vancouver. The analysis of data from the survey, generally speaking, indicated that the physical characteristics do play a part in the use of local parks. Facilities, supervision and accessibility of the parks emerge as important factors affecting the use of local parks. In the final chapter, the data analysis noted above is extended in order to construct a list of findings which are stated in the form of detailed, tentative hypotheses. The chapter concludes with suggestions to change the method employed in arriving at local park standards. It is recommended that these be based on the notion of an activity space index rather than on land area of the park. This method, it is indicated, would quantify the more functional and significant aspects of local park system than that based on park area.

Text

2010-02-02

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19549

Planning

University of British Columbia

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