Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Differences in the recreational value of urban parks between weekdays and weekends: A discrete choice analysis

Abstract:
Urban parks offer city residents a broad range of opportunities for recreation. This paper explores whether preferences for urban parks are context-dependent, i.e., whether they differ between recreational occasions on weekdays and weekends. Knowledge about such differences in behaviour and preferences could help decision makers in cities to optimise their portfolio of urban parks. Employing a discrete choice experiment for the case of Berlin, Germany, the analysis finds that preferences significantly differ between weekday and weekend recreation for some park characteristics. For weekdays, respondents prefer urban parks in closer proximity to their homes while the size of the parks is not so important. For the weekend, larger parks with picnic facilities are preferred while distance matters less. Most important are, however, cleanliness and maintenance, regardless of whether a park is visited on weekdays or the weekend. The results underline the importance of considering different temporal contexts when preferences for outdoor recreation are concerned.
Highlights
• Temporal contexts significantly affect recreational preferences of urban residents.
• During the week, distance to parks is of particular importance.
• For the weekend, larger parks are preferred while distance matters less.
• Cleanliness and maintenance are most important for visits at any time of the week.

For a medium size park (10-50 hectares) the Marginal Willingness to Pay for park attributes rises from 19.56 euros on weekdays to 53.03 euros on weekends, for picnic facilities it rises from 32.21 euros to 71.45 euros as shown in the table below.
by Christine Bertram 1, Jürgen Meyerhoff 1 and 2, Katrin Rehdanz 1 and 3, and Henry Wüstemann 2
1. Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiellinie 66, D-24105 Kiel, Germany
2. Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 145, D-10623 Berlin, Germany
3. University of Kiel, Department of Economics, Wilhelm-Seelig-Platz 1, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
Landscape and Urban Planning via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 159; March, 2017; Available online 18 November 2016; Pages 5–14
Keywords: Urban parks; Discrete choice experiment (DCE); Recreational behaviour; Context-dependent preferences; Weekend vs. weekday

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