A Safe Playground For All
Evaluating Visual Safety of The Bloomingdale Playground at 104th Street Broadway
Author: Achmad Maulana | Jisoo Kim | Junho Lee
Abstract
This project aims to explore the visual coverage and reachability coverage, within reasonable timing, in place(s) with high traffic pedestrian movement that require moderate to high level of security due to its nature of activities. In this exercise we take children playground as our case study for our analysis to measure and evaluate the level of safety by factoring the visual coverage and reachability of the existing design. We use pedestrian flow analysis and visual analysis in our study. We evaluate the high traffic area within the playground to create a “heatmap” of activities, comparing against the location of benches, where the guardians would sit and monitor the kids activities.
1. Introduction
New York City is the birthplace of municipal playgrounds. In 1903, the first municipal park in the country equipped as a permanent playground opened within Seward Park. Today’s playgrounds are as varied as the city itself, with activities and equipment for children of all ages and abilities; athletic fields, courts, and fitness equipment for teens and adults, and relaxing areas, benches, and game tables for all to enjoy.
In this exercise we take the newly renovated Bloomingdale Playground as our case study. Part of the NYC Mayor’s Community Parks Initiative, the redesign of Bloomingdale Playground has been hailed as the “gold standard” for accessibility and inclusiveness in the city. The new design transforms this outdated schoolyard into a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood park that welcomes children and adults of all ages and abilities. The universally accessible playground was inspired by the spectrum of human ability and the idea that mobility and perception of all kinds are extendable by use of visual, auditory and mechanical devices.
In this exercise we want to evaluate the Bloomingdale playground safety , evaluating any blind spots for the parents / guardians when accompanying their children in the playground, and to measure level of reachability of the parents/guardians to attend to emergency situation that may happen in the playground.
The safety factor is important not only based activities of kids within the playground, but also potential threat from outside / neighborhood that is sometimes beyond control, that may affect children’s safety. Having a sufficient visual and reachability coverage for parents or guardian to be able to attend to their kids in a reasonable timing incase of emergency, will be one of the important measure to make sure that a playground is safe.
2. Methodology
Space — We use Bloomingdale playground as case study. Located at Amsterdam Ave., W. 104 St. and W. 105 St. Manhattan. We evaluate the existing siteplan of the playground, location of benches, defining the amenities (focus only on kids amenities) as well as point of entry.
Population- template that we use for this exercise :
Time — In PedSim, we set the visiting time of amenities as follow with assumption of normal visiting time in the playground during given day:
Total duration of simulation : 1200
Playground : 400
Park seats : 300
Bathroom : 180
3. Simulation
Pedestrian Simulation — Combining all factors, we use PedSim and Decoding Spaces to simulate the behaviour pattern in the playground as base to define the area with most traffic, creating “heatmap” of activities in the playground.
Heatmap — After the pedestrian simulation we analyze based on the pattern, are of concentrated activities within the playground by creating heatmap to determine and set criteria and rating on area(s) with high concentration of activities
Visibility Simulation — The next step we do is measuring visibility from the existing benches. We determined the field of view of 140 degree (human sightline) with 80 ft distance with assumption that this distance is a optimum range of view to recognize facial features to identify the kids.
And we measure against the heatmap, we score using the highest level of activities (level 5) to rate the level of visibility score (1 to 5) of each benches.
Reachability Simulation- The next step is to measure reachability index. First we identify based on the “heatmap” the top 10 frequent spots of activities as base of measurement with assumption that these spots will likely be having potential collisions / accidents / frictions among children in the playground
From there we run a simulation with parameter of average running speed of 8 mph to evaluate running distance from each benches. We use 3 seconds as the benchmark for a good score.
We ended up with result of reachability index (1 to 5) with 5 being the best score with running distance less and up to 3 seconds, where 1 being the worst with more that 11 seconds.
Safety Index Simulation — And finally we combine both simulations to create a Safety Index overall.
4. Key takeaway
- Safety measure — in places like playground we need to make sure that placement of safety features are placed strategically
- Placement of benches and amenities — By understanding the pattern of activities, placement amenities and benches can be strategically located to ensure an even coverage especially for area
- Efficiency — From the simulation we understand that some benches are not strategically located thus may not need to be placed there, so we can be more efficient in procuring the street furnitures
- Applicability — The strategy can be applied in situation that need safety measure and/or surveillance with high traffic of movement (public pool, campus ground, fair grounds, etc)
Data Sources:
