Demand for parks and perceived accessibility as key determinants of urban park use behavior

Abstract

Even though urban parks are widely recognized to contribute to the well-being of urban dwellers, the extent to which the potential benefits are realized is not just about park provision alone, but is to a large extent determined by park use behavior of urban dwellers. Park use behavior is an area that has attracted a significant amount of studies but one particular determinant of park use that has received little attention is park use demand, which is defined as an individual’s intention and commitment to use parks for a range of reasons. In this study, we applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify the key determinants of park use demand and park use behavior. A park use demand and behavior model was thereafter developed based on TPB, and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) based on data collected from door-to-door household survey in four study sites in Singapore (n = 597). The results showed that residents’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived accessibility have significant and positive effects on their park use demand and behavior. Among these variables, attitude had the strongest influence on park used demand, while demand and perceived accessibility showed the highest impact on park use behavior. Perceived accessibility significantly had a stronger explanatory and predictive power than physical accessibility in accounting for changes in park use demand and behavior. We also discussed the implications of our results on park planning and management.