Do we have enough recreational spaces during pandemics? – a new publication in Landscape and Urban Planning
Recreational walking is beneficial for physical and mental health. The densification of cities however threatens the availability of public open space. Furthermore, crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown processes augment even more the demand for walking space.
The new publication of Marcelo Galleguillos-Torres, Constance Brouillet, Maarten van Strien, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey and colleagues from the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems show that many current public open spaces in cities and small towns are already saturated by recreational demand in normal times and that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. In addition, we find out that the main landscape characteristic that fosters recreational walks is tranquillity. From the sociodemographic point of view, we observed that women walk more than men and that retired people were the largest user group of the recreational walking infrastructure. Designing cities of the future will thus require creative solutions to balance the increased need for tranquil public open spaces while planning for denser and greener cities.
external page https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104373