This study investigates how people's perceived sense of safety affects their use of and feeling of safety when they are in a park. The chosen location for the case study research is Karlstad City Garden. Currently, Karlstad City Garden is underutilized and was described as unsafe in a survey conducted by the municipality of Karlstad in 2018 (Karlstad kommun 2019). The purpose of this study is to examine visitors' perceived feelings of safety when they are in Karlstad City Garden. The study will focus on four factors; lighting, lack of people, maintenance, and visibility to provide what effect they have on people when they visit a public place. Previous research, including the municipality's safety survey, identified these four factors as significant contributors to visitors' feelings of safety. This study aims to gain a better understanding of why visitors perceive themselves as safe or unsafe in the park and how these four factors influence their perceived sense of safety. To investigate visitors' experiences of the park, a questionnaire was distributed through social media, and QR codes were distributed in the park to reach a diverse range of respondents. Additionally, observations were conducted as part of the study, primarily to complement the questionnaire and strengthen the findings. The study findings revealed that the time of day and the four factors mentioned above influenced visitors' perceived sense of safety in the park. During the day, more people were present, which made visitors feel safer. In the evening, the park was largely empty, and there were few visitors. The feelings of safety during this time could be attributed to the low population in the park, inadequate lighting in most areas, and reduced visibility during the evening. The poor visibility and lighting could be a result of insufficient maintenance, particularly in the densely vegetated southern part of the park. As a result, many people may have avoided visiting the park in the evening due to feeling unsafe.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-95552 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Hama Saeed, Ajar, Larsson, Karl-Alvin |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för geografi, medier och kommunikation (from 2013) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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