EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - GREENSPACE project

GREENSPACE project - predicting trips to urban parks

Introduction

Researchers from the Technological University in Eindhoven used a conjoint choice experiment to determine the relative importance of urban park attributes on people’s choice of park.

Description

Policy makers and planners typically make decisions regarding urban green space provisions without methodological or technical support, though this could help them assess the demands, needs and preferences of park users. By means of a conjoint choice model, researchers at the Technological University Eindhoven determined the relative importance of 22 attributes of urban parks (e.g. cleanliness, availability of lighting and presence of water) which influence park choice. In addition to presenting the average results, the researchers break down the results according to gender, household composition and age.

Background information

This research was part of the GREENSPACE project, an applied research project on green space in urban areas. The GREENSPACE project had the aim of demonstrating the contribution that urban green space makes to people’s quality of life. The project ran from 2001-2004.

The GREENSPACE project was carried out by a team of seven European partners:

University College Dublin;
Robert Gordon University / the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen;
University of Surrey / University of Brighton;
the Eindhoven University of Technology;
University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart;
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich;
the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

This research paper is chapter 5.2 of the GREENSPACE final report.

Methodology

The data for this study was collected by means of an internet survey which consisted of choice experiments.

The survey was carried out as follows:

On the basis of relevance, reliability and respondent burden, the researchers selected 22 urban park attributes, which were varied and combined into profiles describing various types of park.
From the almost 17 million possible profiles, the researchers selected 128 profiles, which were combined at random to create 128 choice sets.
Respondents were shown a randomly selected block of eight choice sets, which each consisted of two hypothetical urban parks. They were asked to allocate ten trips among these two parks.
Their responses were analysed using a multinomial logit model.

EU involvement

The GREENSPACE project was funded by the European Commission under the Key Action Environment and Sustainable Development of the EU Fifth Framework Programme.

Conclusions

The average results

Distance to the urban park is the most influential attribute, followed by size/type of park.
The availability of many facilities is not deemed very important.
The two least important attributes are ecological value of the park and the presence of benches and tables.

Gender specific results

Women seem to be less sensitive to distance.
Women show a higher relative preference for smaller parks and more passive activities, while men have a higher utility for the more active activities and bigger parks.
Women attach higher utilities to safety, maintenance and cleanliness, and also prefer a busier park.

Household-specific results

Households with children are less sensitive to distance.
They have a higher preference for more family-oriented activities.
They prefer parks with playgrounds.

Age-specific results

People that are older than forty are less sensitive to distance, prefer larger parks with trees and bushes and no water features, and prefer a possibility for walking the dog.
Older people have lower preference for accessibility to public transport, the option of sport activities, playgrounds for children and the availability of toilets.

Contact info

Technological University of Eindhoven
Prof. dr. Harry Timmermans (Professor of urban planning), tel. +31 40 2472274

Publication date

01/01/2005

Researcher

Dr. Maarten Ponje and Prof. dr. Harry Timmermans, Technological University of Eindhoven

Links

GREENSPACE Project Technological University of Eindhoven General description of GREENSPACE project in EUKN e-library

GREENSPACE Final Report - Chapter 5.2 'Development of a conjoint choice model to predict trips to urban parks in Eindhoven' (PDF, Eng, 2.7MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure > Services & amenities

Keywords

Public space