THE HUMAN FACTOR IN RECREATION PLANNING
By R. C. Robinson,
Regional Recreational Planner.
Parks are acquired and developed so that present and
future generations may enjoy themselves in the out-of-doors. Facilities
are provided so that people may engage in those activities which afford
them the greatest satisfaction. The Utopian objective is to provide
enough parks and enough facilities to make it possible for every man,
woman and child to enjoy nature through an understanding and
appreciative association with all of its manifestations.
On the other hand, this involves physical resources
-- land, waters, topography, vegetation, wildlife; on the other, the
recreational habits and interests of people. The one can be appraised by
all five senses, measured, evaluated; the other is without substance.
Yet in recreation planning, one must be balanced off against the
other.
In order to do this, the answers to certain
fundamental questions must be found. What kind of outdoor recreation do
people want? What kind do they need? What habits govern their
participation in activities?
With a view to obtaining pertinent information on
these questions, the Service has been cooperating for the last two years
with the several states in conducting studies of attendance and use at
recreational areas scattered throughout the nation. In Region One, this
survey has covered more than 100 state, metropolitan and county areas.
Not only have data on attendance and use been recorded and analyzed, but
a continuous effort has been made to obtain statements from typical park
visitors of their recreational interests and the habits that govern
their leisure time activities. To broaden the scope of the study to
include those who never visit parks, surveys have been conducted in
rural communities, towns, and cities, using the sampling method of
research. And finally, the field observations of recreation specialists
and leaders have been obtained as a further source of information.
While the results of these studies are by no means
startling, they do serve to crystallize knowledge which has been
accumulated through the experience and observations of recreation
administrators and leaders. They reveal that the average man's
recreational interests form a complex pattern in which one activity
becomes enjoyable only because it makes possible still other activities;
that what psychologists term the gregarious instinct constitutes a
powerful motivating force in shaping his recreational preferences,
causing him to seek principally those activities which afford
companionship in abundance; and that, as in other human endeavors,
organization and leadership are fundamental elements in most of his
recreational activities.
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The Park Use Chart opposite this page constitutes a
tentative effort to present these findings graphically. It is by no
means inclusive, since many desirable park activities, such as winter
sports, have been omitted, but an attempt has been made to include the
more typical of those activities which are believed to be in harmony
with and require a natural environment for their best expression, or
which contribute to the park visitor's enjoyment as complements of the
principal motivating interests which bring him to an area.
The first important planning factor brought out by
the chart involves the classification of visitors. Here, as in all
aspects of park use, there is considerable overlapping. Individuals may
come alone, or as members of an informal group. They use the general
public-use facilities and participate in such activities as are
available and suitable to their interests. Each individual depends upon
his own initiative or upon the initiative of leaders, either
professional or volunteer, for originating activities.
Those visitors who come as members of organizations
frequently have a planned program of activities and desire facilities
adaptable to organizational use. For example, to meet the organizational
needs for picnicking, group areas providing capacities ranging from 25
to 30 to several hundred are needed, each such unit including, among
other features, a reasonable amount of elbow room and privacy, an open
play space for group activities, and a campfire circle for evening
programs.
The general incentive which brings visitors to the
park is the desire for an outing, Outings have been classified by major
leisure-time periods, i.e., week-day, holiday, overnight, and vacation
periods. The week-day visitor generally comes late in the afternoon and,
if facilities adaptable for evening use are available, will often remain
until well after dark. The campfire circle and recreation building are
two facilities which make possible this evening use.
The holiday visitor has several hours at his
disposal. Generally speaking, he either comes in the morning between 9
and 12, has his lunch on the area, remains until 5 to 6 o'clock, and
goes home; or he comes in the afternoon between 1 and 4, has an evening
lunch on the area and goes home at dusk or later. From the standpoint of
planning, this means that facilities for holiday use should be adequate
to handle at one time approximately half the anticipated number of
visitors. The peak load generally comes between 4 and 5 o'clock, at
which time the average ranges as high as 50 or 60 per cent of the total
attendance for the day.
The overnight visitor comes on a Saturday afternoon
to stay until Sunday afternoon, or he may come on the afternoon before a
holiday, such as the Fourth of July, to remain overnight. He will
participate in the same types of activities as the week-day and holiday
visitor; consequently, his only additional requirement is for overnight
accommodations, including facilities for preparing and serving meals.
The vacation visitor comes for a stay ranging from several days to
several weeks. Here, again, his activity interests will be met by the
same facilities as those provided for week-day and holiday visitors;
consequently, his only additional requirements are those of lodging and
meal preparation and serving accommodations. Since he is spending a
longer period of time at the area, he generally desires better
accommodations than the overnight visitor in the way of cabin equipment
for cooking, eating, sleeping and bathing.
DIVERSITY OF INTERESTS
Top to bottom: Allegany State Park (N. Y.); Beach Pond Recreational
Demonstration Area (R. I.); French Creek Recreational Demonstration Area
(Pa.), and Shenandoah National Park (Va.).
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Those activities which the visitor has primarily in
mind in coming to an area are classified on the chart as motivating
interests. It should be understood that there is a large overlapping of
interests as between activities; that, for example, the swimmer may want
to eat his lunch at the picnic area, play games on the playfield and
hike along the nature trail in addition to swimming; while a family may
come for a picnic, each member seeking other activities in accordance
with his or her particular interests.
This overlapping of interests on the part of the park
visitor has a definite influence on planning since it makes advisable
the establishment, in design, of certain relationships between
facilities. Those facilities necessary to accommodate the various
activities are listed and should need no explanations. Natural resources
and a knowledge of the recreational needs of the using public will
determine which of the activities listed on the chart an area can and
should offer. It should be borne in mind, however, that each activity
will contribute something both to the popularity of an area and to the
enjoyment of park visitors and that, for this reason, planning should
include opportunities for as wide a diversity of interests as is
practicable.
Water Recreation: Activities listed under this
heading are those which depend directly or indirectly upon a body of
water and are typical rather then exhaustive. It does not include
activities listed under motivating interests but which are of ten
incidental to water recreation, such, for example, as picnicking and
cultural and educational activities.
Picnicking: Picnicking, like camping, is for
the average park visitor a means to an end, that end being participation
in a wide variety of activities. Among the activities closely associated
with picnicking are those listed on the chart under this classification.
In addition, all of those activities listed under other classifications,
with the exception of camping may be considered as complements.
It is particularly important, from the standpoint of
planning, to make swimming and picnicking possible as a joint activity,
since it has been found through study and observation that a very large
percentage of picnickers want to participate in water recreation. For
this reason, it is desirable to locate picnicking facilities as close to
the beach or swimming area as site conditions will permit. The
requirements for the two principal types of picnicking, that is,
informal and organized, should be kept foremost in mind. It is also
particularly important to provide open spaces (playfields) and campfire
circles in planning the layout of a picnicking area, since such
facilities contribute materially to the enjoyment of outing visitors who
come for a picnic.
Cultural and Educational: Those activities
listed on the chart under this classification are by no means
exhaustive. Many of man's recreational hobbies involve cultural or
educational pursuits. A park may, for example, become an excellent place
for the study of astronomy, for wildlife photography, for sketching, for
painting, and for many other similar activities. Not only is nature
education fundamental to an understanding of the purpose and need for
conservation, but it provides the basis for a real enjoyment of the
out-of-doors. Under qualified leadership it can also become a popular
and absorbing activity. It therefore should be given emphasis in program
planning.
Pioneer and wood crafts may be considered a part of a
nature education program, since they involve those arts which man
created during his centuries of hand-to-hand struggle with the neutral
environment. For this reason the craft shop should be located near the
museum so that it may be used inconjunction with the nature program.
Areas which have historical or archeological
significance offer a wide variety of opportunities for stimulating
visitors' interest in these two important subjects. Even where an area
is lacking in either of these resources, interest can be created,
through pageants and drama, in the folklore history of the general
section of the state in which it is located. In all probability, the
arts of music and drama originated around a campfire. Today, the average
group, when gathered around a campfire circle, engages in song,
story-telling and dramatic stunts. Music festivals and dramatic pageants
in open air theaters have long been popular and may be considered
legitimate activities on areas which can provide the facilities and
necessary directional leadership and which are conveniently located in
relationship to population.
Camping: Camping has been defined as the art
of living within the limitations of an outdoor and primitive
environment. There are many modes of camping and types of camping
facilities raging from cabins de luxe with hot showers, electric stoves
and other civilized gadgets, to primitive sites on which the camper
builds his campfire, cooks his meal and spreads his pallet under the
sky. For planning purposes, however, these modes and types of camping
have been arbitrarily grouped under the classifications listed on the
Chart. Briefly, these classifications may be explained as follows:
Vacation camping has reference to that type of
camping done in individual family cabins, on camp grounds and in trailer
camps, and involves a period of several days or more. Organized
camping has been used to designate that type of camping conducted
for a group of people by an institution, operated under certain routine
discipline, which seeks to carry out definite aims through the
supervision of trained leaders. In formal group camping is used
to designate that type of camping conducted for a group of people,
predominantly adult, operated with a minimum restriction of routine
discipline, in which the program arises out of the recreational
interests and initiation of the campers themselves under the stimulation
and guidance of a properly trained administrative staff.
Pioneer camping has been used to designate
that type of camping in which the learning of camping techniques in a
designated, undeveloped (except for potable water and pit toilets) site
by an organized group constitutes the primary objective. Primitive
camping has been used to designate that type of camping which has as
its primary objective the application of campcraft techniques in a
natural environment by individuals or small groups furnishing and
carrying their own equipment "back in" off the beaten path. Day
camping has been used to designate that type of camping which
involves the spending of a day in the out-of-doors by an organized group
which carries out a camping program under supervision.
Special Events: Special events have both a
participant and spectator value. They afford an additional value as a
means of focusing public attention on various recreational activities,
thereby stimulating a wider interest in these activities.
Miscellaneous: Listed under this
classification are a number of activities which have been found to be
incentives which bring visitors to a park or recreational area.
Enjoyment of scenery has a particularly strong appeal
on areas which offer unusual natural features or exceptional beauty.
Judging from park use studies, a large number of people come to
recreational areas with no other objective in mind than that of
relaxing, since they participate in no other activity. They provide the
spectators found around swimming areas and other feature points. Archery
has a number of followers who make trips to outlying areas for the sole
purpose of using the archery range. The same is true of horseback riding
and hiking. Studies on areas which have scenic drives reveal that many
people come solely to use them as motorways.
[Editor's Note: The above article introduces in a
general way a series of recreational studies which will appear in future
issues of The Review].
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