Discussion

INCREASE WALKABILITY WITHIN PARKS

Map 2 (found under the results tab) shows the availability of amenities in North Vancouver parks that could impact visitations, and consequently increased walking within the greenspaces.

The availability of playgrounds increases the chance of children and young adults walking to the parks, as well as the walking within the parks, as children are motivated to spend more times outdoors when provided with a play area (Buck, 2014). As only 24 of the 54 parks in North Vancouver had parks, we suggest that there be an increase in the number of facilities that promote children’s play and sport activities within these parks. This will likely lead to more children and adults walking to the parks to take advantage of these amenities. In addition, traffic safety measures around the parks that provide children’s play features must be insured (ex: low speed zones, stop signs).

The scarcity of public toilets seems to be a common feature that prevents residents from spending their time outdoors. Only 6/54 (11%) of parks in North Vancouver currently have washroom facilities. Numerous studies show that cleanliness and access to parks is an important factor of whether or not people will go to a certain park (Crilley, 2012). We assume that the availability of maintained and easy-to-access washroom facilities would increase the number of people who visited these parks, as they are elements that increase visitor satisfaction. In addition, of the 54 parks in the City, only 17 (31%) had picnic areas, which are another factor that increases park visitation. Therefore, we suggest that an increase in picnic areas would result in more visitors to the parks, as the picnic areas will provide resting areas for residents.

The availability of walkable trails within the parks was low, with only 13 parks (24%) having designated routes that promoted walking through the green spaces. In a study of Ontario neighborhoods, it was found that parks with a trail were 26 times more likely to be used for physical activity (Kaczynski, 2008). Therefore, it can be concluded that the provision of trails in community parks and other green spaces would provide a ground for a significant increase in residents walking in green spaces.

Recommendations:

Increase number of walkable trails within parks
Increase number of restrooms in parks throughout the city, and ensure their regular maintenance
Increase number of picnic areas
Increase number of facilities that promote children’s play, and ensure traffic safety measures

INCREASE WALKABILITY TO PARKS

Studies that examine residential proximity to parks and willingness to walk indicate that there is a relationship between distances to public open space and walking or physical activity levels ("Evidence | Healthy Active By Design", 2016). A walking distance between 1.6 and 2 km is considered a threshold for people’s willingness to walk ("Evidence | Healthy Active By Design", 2016). Walking time and elements of routes are additional factors that can affect the desire of walking through such routes, In addition, the size of the park is found to be one of the component that affect the probability of walking and/or using certain parks (Dills et al.,2012).

The proximity map generated shows the distance and routes between residential locations and park in the City of North Vancouver, and all distances fall within the threshold recommended. However, the routes that connect parks to residential areas lack content that might be decreasing walking rates for people that need to use certain routes. Some of the longest routes routes fall within Hwy-1, and we observed during our visit to North Vancouver that two parks that fall within the Hwy route lacked signages that indicate how to access parks (Greenwood Park, Tempe Heights). In addition, some of the routes that lead to parks lack speeding zones and stop signs, where playground exist within parks (Greenwood park and Tempe Heights park). Moreover, larger parks are mainly located in the west side of the City of North Vancouver (see maps 1 and 2), therefore, for people that live on the east side of the City will have to commute for longer distance to reach larger parks. By enhancing the routes surrounding smaller parks in the east side of the City, we predict an increase rate of walkability to parks in that area.

Recommendations

Improve current routes between parks and residential areas by: displaying park signs that indicate walkable routes, entrances to parks, and elements within parks.
Implement slower speed zones around all parks that include playgrounds.
Consider including future parks only within the recommended walking threshold → max of 2 km

PRIORITIZE PARKS NEAR POPULATED AREAS

From an initial overview of Map 1, the reader can immediately see that the neighbourhoods Lower Lonsdale, Tempe, and the northern portions of Grand Boulevard and Central Lonsdale are more heavily populated than the rest of the neighbourhoods. Therefore, we suggest to implement our above recommendations starting in parks where the changes would have the most impact in terms of the most number of residents possibly affected. These types of parks include those near the shore in Lower Lonsdale (Waterfront Park, Semisch Park) and as well as Victoria Park higher up north. Other parks to for urban planners to consider when making changes include Greenwood Park and Tempe Heights Park in the northeastern parts of the City.

While there are a multitude of parks located throughout, there are certain areas of the City that are lacking in parks despite a moderate populated count. These include the northwestern portion of Moodyville, the middle of Central Lonsdale, and the entirety of the Westview neighbourhoods.

Recommendations:

Implement recommendations initially at parks where there are more densely-populated areas (e.g. Waterfront Park and Victoria Park in the Lower Lonsdale neighborhood)
Create new parks and greenways in areas where there are a lack thereof (e.g. Westview and Central Lonsdale)

LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

Due to the division of responsibility between provincial and municipal governments, we expect our major challenge to our proposed amendments to be overcoming changes that are beyond the control of the City’s jurisdictions. One example is the parks that are located in the northeastern part of the city (including Tempe Heights Park and Greenwood Park), which surround BC-HWY1. As maintenance and highway development are within the Province’s jurisdictions, the City may have a difficult time addressing the factors surrounding these areas that could be changed to increase walking. We found that accessing these specific parks, even by vehicle, was difficult.

Other challenges we faced were proposing changes to the parks and their surrounding areas that are feasible and within the City’s budget. Some of the implementations that were not proposed due to their infeasibility were building pedestrian controlled traffic-lights, and overpasses. Therefore, the changes we proposed are limited to solutions that are affordable and require less labour.

ALTERNATIVE METHODS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN USED

Since we didn’t have a specific population to focus on, we decided to exclude some facilities within parks such as recreation centers and facilities. Instead, we selected elements within and around parks that can apply to the general population: washrooms, playgrounds, picnic tables and trails. Including recreation centers and facilities could have been another approach to take. In addition, we decided to focus on recreational greenways type of parks and we didn’t include environmental greenways.

We took this approach because investing in recreational greenways would be time and cost effective due to the assumption that they have higher rate of use by residents when compared with environmental greenways. Future projects can take environmental greenways into consideration as an alternative approach to the one we took.