Why our parks and open spaces are critical during COVID-19

COVID-19 has taught us all how interconnected we are. That story is playing out in the markets where we’re watching stock prices tumble. We also see an intimate version of it in ourselves as we each try to do what’s best for those around us by staying home, self-educating, and practicing social distancing.

The challenge ahead of us is essentially:

1. To avoid creating paths for the pathogen through our own lives.
2. To remain physically and mentally healthy so we may care for those who do become ill (the pathogen of fear is equally dangerous here).
3. To encourage, enable, and — in appropriate cases — enforce these behaviors in others.

It’s quite a unique moment in history when open space parks become an asset of critical importance to humanity. As those of us who frequently use our open spaces know, and as science has proven, exercise in the great outdoors provides the perfect chemical cocktail for our physical and mental health. Now is the moment when we need that sanity distributed throughout our cities. Now, more than ever, we want everyone to have access to the calm that comes after a hard ride, the clarity from a long run, and the serenity of a birdsong. However, there is an unfortunate cost.

With Colorado’s stay-at-home order coming into effect on Thursday (03/26) at 6 am, and similar orders going out in cities and states throughout the nation, people’s options are limited as to what they can do with their time (and pent up energy). Already, since the declaration of a National Emergency on March 13, visitorship at open space parks has skyrocketed. Stay-at-home orders with language like, “Denver parks will remain open to the public to engage in walking, hiking, biking, running, and similar outdoor activities”, will only increase those visitor numbers.

The challenge that faces park administrators is whether or not to leave their doors open to recreation.

Unlike most other organizations, this is not cut and dry. Parks are large enough and open enough that the probability of transmission between two people is much lower. It’s worth noting, however, that it’s a myth that sunlight kills this coronavirus. Gyms and yoga studios must shut-down, but parks may not, especially if they aren’t being overcrowded by visitors and aren’t risking the health of rangers and other personnel.

At Lot Spot, we deal in the realm of park visitor metrics on a daily basis. We’ve seen firsthand that access to useful information changes visitor behavior. We want those effects to be available for free to any park trying to keep their visitors safe. When a visitor knows that a park is too busy to safely visit our data shows they will avoid it. Without access to this information they cannot know ahead of time if they should avoid a particular park, or avoid parks altogether.

To address this, we built healthyparks.co, a site where open spaces can report park occupancy to inform their visitors about which of their parks are safe to visit. It’s free for everyone to use, and it will remain that way. It takes about one minute to add your park. We hope that by providing this service more parks can remain open while keeping people safe.

If you have friends or colleagues that are outdoorspeople or park administrators, please share this message with them to increase the likelihood that we flatten the curve with as little cost to our collective sanity and health as possible.