ABSTRACT
Neighbourhood urban open spaces are those that are part of the neighbourhood in two ways. First of all they are physically further from home, except on rare occasions. than domestic urban open spaces. This means that to use neighbourhood urban open spaces one has to make a very specific decision to do so. This may be different from some domestic urban open spaces which one can almost treat as an extension of the home. The decision to use any particular neighbourhood urban open space thus requires a journey of some sort-whether it is 200 yards or further. In some communities such journeys will be-or should be-made on foot, the walk to the park or school being a good example. Unfortunately many such journeys are in fact made by car, some by choice on bicycle and some by necessity are made by public transport. It is anticipated that in general the distances travelled to neighbourhood urban open spaces will be of a limited length, although there are some who travel outside their own physical neighbourhoods and communities to others for services such as schooling and thus use open spaces in other people’s neighbourhoods. Travel and accessibility to neighbourhood urban open spaces thus begin to raise issues of cost and perceived safety for one’s self and one’s children.
