A RECREATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT PROCESS - AN ORIGIN-DESTINATION APPROACH

Presented here is a process that communities can use to plan improvements in their recreation system which are responsive to the expressed needs of their residents. It is particularly useful for demonstrating the optimum locations for urban parks to maximize energy conservation and social service return on capital investment. Central to the process is a comparison of projected recreation needs and desires, based on an attitude survey, with the capacity of the existing local park systems, to identify future deficiency problems. The process employed a regional origin-destination travel model to distribute demand. A citizens' advisory committee to the planning program, along with the parks and recreation commission, reviewed and made recommendations for each task in the process. /Author/TRRL/