People's Preferences for Greenway Landscapes:
Survey Ratings of Indianapolis Trails
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People's Preferences for Greenway Landscapes: Survey Ratings of Indianapolis Trails
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Trail surface (asphalt, crushed limestone, wood, sidewalk) |
| Sinuosity (curved, not curved) |
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Presence of human alterations |
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Presence of Water |
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The study has six main findings that have implications for greenway trail planners and managers:
Most people find most trail landscapes both attractive and safe. The majority of average ratings for the photographs were above 3, the midpoint on the scale, which indicates that people generally agreed that the trails appeared attractive and safe. The average ratings for the photos overall were 3.62 for attractiveness and 3.42 for safety.
People generally agreed on which trail landscapes appeared attractive or unattractive and safe or unsafe. The photos that had the highest and lowest average ratings for attractiveness and safety also tended to have low variances – which are a statistical measure of how widely opinions differed.
With respect to the attractiveness of trails, people indicated clear preferences for certain landscape features. All other factors equal, people thought trail landscapes with asphalt surfaces, water, and natural rather than built surroundings were more attractive.
With respect to the safety of trails, people thought that trails with high levels of maintenance, asphalt surfaces, and nearby water were safer than trails without these features.
Users of greenway trails were more likely on average to rate greenway trails both more attractive and safer than non-users.
Peoples’ backgrounds also influenced their perceptions of trail landscapes.
With respect to attractiveness:
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Females rated trails less attractive; |
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People with more education (bachelor’s or graduate degrees) rated trails more attractive; and |
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People with incomes between $40,000 and $79,999 per year rated trails more attractive than people with lower or higher incomes |
With respect to safety:
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People with more education (bachelor’s or graduate degrees) rated trails safer; |
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People over age 65 rated trails safer; and |
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People with higher incomes ($80,000 or more per year) rated trails less safe than did people with lower incomes. |
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Overall the results suggest that trail managers in Indianapolis have done a good job creating and maintaining trails that people find attractive and safe. These results also indicate which factors planners should consider when developing new trails. To the extent that conditions allow, trail planners can try to locate trails near water, introduce curves into trails, plan for asphalt surfaces, and lay out trails and place plantings to minimize views of built structures and other human alterations of the landscape. To increase perceptions of safety, trail managers can plan maintenance programs to ensure that signs of maintenance are visible and that trails are well-maintained. Use of asphalt trail surfaces also may increase perceptions of safety.
One possible issue raised by these results concerns the potential conflict between people’s preferences for highly maintained landscapes and goals of conservation and ecological restoration. People may perceive natural landscapes to be less attractive or less safe if they have no visible signs of maintenance. By carefully introducing visible signs of maintenance into natural landscapes, planners may be able to increase appreciation of them.
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