ENGINEERING ACCESSIBILITY OF OPEN RECREATIONAL FACILITIES IN URBAN RESIDENTIAL AREAS OF BLOEMFONTEIN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Public parks (PP) and open recreational facilities are essential elements in cities, particularly in the residential areas. Evidence from literaure suggests that public parks have a positive influence on the social and physical health of the people who have access to them. Although, public parks have been found to be placed strategically in the residential areas of South African cities according to urban planning guidelines and regulations, many of them are not being effectively utilised by the residents surrounding them, and less and less people are utilizing the public parks in their area. Many factors including location, accessibility, and social issues like crime or fear of crime, life style, and lack of time are generally attributed for the public parks for being less vibrant and under-utilised. However, accessibility is considered as a vital element for the use of public parks. Consequently, an investigation was conducted on to explore the determinants influencing accessibility to the public parks, and to examine how accessibility level of these public parks in the residential areas of South African cities will be improved. The study was conducted by using the case study of the public parks in residential areas of Bloemfontein, a mid-sized city situated in central South Africa, where many of the public parks in are found to be under-utilized. A survey research methodology, use of GIS and development of regression models were followed in this investigation. Data was collected through household survey, physical and park use surveys. The surveys were conducted in four representative suburbs of the city, such as Universitas (South-Western part of Bloemfontein), Langenhovenpark (Western part of Bloemfontein), Batho (Eastern part of Bloemfontein, and Lourier Park (Southern part of Bloemfontein). The suburbs were selected on the basis of a set of selection criteria such as, geographic location, population, social demographic condition, availability of number and type public parks, type of accessibility through road network, and size of the public parks. These selected suburban residential areas vary from each other in terms of its diverse demographics, size, location, and accessibility via road networks. Household survey with a sample size of 208 was conducted by using systematic stratified random sampling process though semi-structured interview method. Physical and park use survey were conducted by using uninterrupted digital photography and videography. Fourteen public parks located in the four selected residential areas were identified for the physical and park user survey. For this purpose a camera was set up at each of the identified public parks, which filmed the parks for 7 days non-stop to monitor the daily use of each park and various accessibility issues. GIS was used to extract spatial and location attributes of these public parks. The data collected were statistically analysed to find the major determinants influencing accessibility to public parks and to establish relationships between parks use and the major control determinants. Based on the analysis, theoretical linear multiple regression models establishing relationships between the park use (measured in terms of number of users per month) as the dependent variable and most influential independent accessibility variables were developed to observe the level of use of parks under varied simulated scenarios. The simulated model results were employed to develop various policy scenarios to improve the use of the public parks in the study area. Findings suggest that there are 22 key determinants, which generally influence the accessibility of the public parks in the city. The variables include average travel distance in service area; service area road network length; service area pavement network length; average lane widths; average pavement width; parking type; number of parking spaces; road lane condition; pedestrian pavement condition; park access type; average vehicle speed; playground or no playground; state of maintenance of public parks; size of public parks; service area; population in service area; average travel time (minutes); longest sight distance to public park(meter); shortest sight distance (meter); light in park at night measured in lumens; number of access streets into park; and road network to pavement network ratio. However, out of these 22 key determinants only four independent variables such as, road network to pavement network ratio, number of access streets to the parks, size of park and level of illumination in the park at night are the major control variables, which significantly influence the accessibility of the parks independently and in combination. The simulated scenario revealed that under the composite scenario of increase in level of lights in the evenings, increase in the road network to pavement network ratio to an optimal level, increase in the number of access streets into the parks, and size of park can appreciably improve the utility of the parks. However, sensitivity analysis shows that the level of illumination in the nights and the number of access streets leading to the public parks is the two most important considerations, which need attention to make the public parks more accessible in the study area.