by
Natalie Brown |
Oct 17, 2017 Park People
The benefits of spending time in parks are
well-documented. And as anyone who has struggled for a square inch of grass to lay down their picnic blanket at
Parc Lafontaine or woven between thousands of cyclists and pedestrians on the Vancouver
Seawall knows, big signature parks generally have no problems attracting users.
But for the vast majority of urban-dwellers, trips to large parks are
an occasional treat. It is the smaller neighbourhood parks dotted
throughout our cities that are the backbone of the park system. These
parks are often simply designed, with limited amenities. But since these
smaller neighbourhood parks are the green spaces that are most often
within walking distance of where we live, are there ways we can maximize
their benefits to the community?
What the data tells us about neighbourhood parks
The researchers behind the U.S.
National Study of Neighbourhood Parks were
intent on finding out. They looked at how neighbourhood parks were
actually being used, and by whom, in U.S. cities with populations of
100,000 or more. Neighbourhood parks were defined as 3- to 20-acre parks
used mostly by people in the immediate vicinity and managed by city
parks and recreation departments.
Data collectors used the
SOPARC methodology to
observe park users in different areas. SOPARC is a direct observation
tool for assessing park and recreation areas, including park users’
physical activity levels, gender, activity modes/types, and estimated
age and ethnicity groupings (
Active Living Research).
The researchers also interviewed adult park users and surveyed city
park staff about their management practices. One of their goals was to
figure out what park amenities seemed to increase or decrease park usage
among different groups of people.
Their compelling results can help shape how we invest in parks:
- Who’s not in parks: Researchers found that
neighborhood park use was especially low among adults, seniors and
younger women. While seniors make up 20% of the general population, they
represented only 4% of the people using neighbourhood parks. Parks were
used less in low-income than in high-income neighborhoods. This
difference was largely explained by fewer supervised activities and less
marketing/outreach efforts. That’s why work by community groups and municipalities to animate parks in underserved areas is so vital.
- Meet the basic needs: They also found that adding
water fountains and washrooms more than doubles park use. These are more
expensive investments (both up-front and in terms of maintenance), but
it’s no surprise that having them helps people spend much longer periods
of time in the parks.
- What gets people active: The facilities that
generated the most activity among adults and seniors were walking
loops. Parks were twice as likely to be empty if they didn’t have
walking loops.
- Add programs: Programming for people of different ages was associated with 37% more hours of activity in parks by local residents.
- Spread the word: Better marketing, including signage, posters and bulletin boards, was associated with 63% more hours of activity.
Three proven low-cost ways to increase park use:
If you work with a municipality, non-profit or community organization
looking to get more people into our parks, here are three ideas for how
you could use this data to make the most impact:
- Invest in great signage and bulletin boards: The
data is clear – welcoming and informative signage is one of the most
cost-effective ways to dramatically increase park usage. Although great
signage isn’t free, it’s a lot less than a new play structure or
washroom building and can make a big impact, correlating with a 62%
increase in park activity according to the study.
- Create programming targeted to people who are not in the park: Park People recently launched a walking program
aimed at newcomers, older adults and seniors in Toronto’s suburbs. One
participant (full disclosure – my mother-in-law!) made immediate
connections with other walkers, including a Spanish-speaking senior who
was delighted to have someone to talk to in Spanish, and a woman who
lived a few streets over that she had never met. The physical and
emotional benefits of spending time in parks are significant, and simple
programming, combined with amenities such as walking loops, can make a
tremendous difference in addressing the under-use of parks among
seniors, girls, and adults, as identified in the study.
- Bring existing programming into parks: Who says the
offerings of a recreation centre or social agency have to stay within
four walls? Municipal park departments and community groups can work
with these organizations to bring arts, recreation and health
programming into the park, attracting new users while providing the
enhanced benefits of green space to existing participants.
What’s next?
Many cities are already taking these findings to heart by investing
in new signage, targeting new populations in their programming, and
bringing existing programs into the parks.
Both the
City of Toronto and the
City of Edmonton are making major investments in new way-finding signage, while large urban parks like Vancouver’s
Hastings Park and Winnipeg’s
Assiniboine Forest are developing unique visual identities that are both beautiful and useful.
In Richmond Hill, the
Artist in Residence pilot program
provided an artist with an opportunity to develop new work to animate
and engage residents in six public spaces. This program echoes the
successful
Arts in the Parks initiative in Toronto, which Park People has helped the Toronto Arts Council bring to 35 parks over the past two years.
We are also seeing the expansion of the SOPARC methodology into
Canada. The Vancouver Park Board is using it, with tweaks to suit the
local context, to collect park user data as part of their
VanPlay strategy, a new 25-year parks and rec master plan.
SOPARC is
open and free for anyone to use – you can even find
training for the data collectors
on YouTube. I would love to see how people are adapting it to help them
better understand usage in their own parks, and whether a simplified
version could help community groups gather data about their parks and
build the case for investments.
Meanwhile, Park People will continue to explore ways to make use of
park data and to support community and city-led initiatives to improve
our neighbourhood parks. If you know of projects happening across Canada
that we can showcase and support,
please let us know.
Natalie Brown is the National Network Manager at
Park People, a charity that supports and mobilizes people to activate
the power of parks to improve quality of life in cities across Canada.
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This article is reprinted with the kind permission of Park People. Visit their site for some really great writing on parks and public spaces.
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