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This paper identifies and discusses that parks, as one kind of open space, must be open not only for some people, but for everyone, including those with special needs such as visually impaired people. The paper further identifies a number of key directions for the policy, design and management of park environments and facilities that will promote openness and social inclusion.

The study was qualitative in nature. Case study approach on park environments and facilities was adopted. Used site studies, field observations, interviews with the government officials and professionals of planners, designers and management were conducted. Direct interviews with the visually impaired people were conducted during the field observation. Some of them were also invited to participate in participatory research workshops to give comments and suggestions on the design and management of park environments and facilities.

Open spaces are important and necessary for all. However, visually impaired people are always indirectly excluded from open spaces such as parks, which are important for the quality of urban life. Three areas that require attention to improve the accessibility of parks: ways of identifying and approaching the parks; overall environmental setting of the parks; and facilities inside the parks. Assistance to visually impaired people can be further categorized into information provided in advance and information provided on-site.

Further case studies are expected to be conducted in other kinds of open space and other cities in order to generate a more comprehensive understanding related to the topic. Continuous studies are also necessary since the park environments and facilities are changing all the time. With the users ' participation, in particular those with special needs, in research is important.

The findings provide reference and direction for the governments, designers and managment to plan, design and manage parks for the needs of visually impaired people. The findings also advocate inclusive and universal approach in planning, implementation and management of parks.

The findings identify that visually impaired people most of the time are indirectly excluded from accessing parks as well as other open spaces.

Although the paper was based on a case study in Hong Kong, its practical and social implications are also important to other places. Although barrier-free concept and requirement have been enforced in many places for some years, people with special needs (in particular visually impaired people) still face a lot of “barriers” in their daily life. The findings provide insights for researchers and also policymakers, designers and management to review the needs of the visually impaired.

Aims to examine the services and facilities provided by public parks revealing that the attributes corresponding to performance of service delivery involve the interaction between non‐human aspects of physical environment and emotional experience of users which differ from common human aspects of service quality. Also, a service quality programme without reference to other service providers can easily lead to misguided or counterproductive service improvement strategies.

The present study suggests an integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks that comprises an assessment of performance outcomes and desires to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of service quality and visitor satisfaction as regards frequent users and low users of public parks. Measures pertaining to this approach were examined by a survey of nine public parks in the county of Derbyshire in the UK.

The results show the effect of individual attributes on visitor satisfaction and their diagnostic value for service improvements. The analysis of desires highlights the differences of pre‐visit (prepurchase) evaluation variables between frequent users and low users.

The integrative approach of service quality analysis proposed by this study accounts for the limitations of relying on a single conventional measure of service quality.

The differences may help identify new dimensions for further research and suggest future behavioural intentions such as loyalty and repeat visits. With the knowledge of individual service components that affect overall visitor satisfaction, managers can pin‐point areas for improvement to overcome service shortcomings, and allocate scarce resources more effectively.

Parking choice involves an individual selecting a parking place based upon various inter-related factors. This chapter examines the factors that influence parking choice decisions.

A review of the literature on parking choice has been undertaken. The influence of various factors on parking choice and recommendations for future parking policy will be outlined.

Most often it is a combination of several factors which influence individuals’ choice of parking place.

Increased knowledge of the factors which influence parking-search behaviour will inform urban parking policy applications with associated environmental and economic benefits.

This paper will identify people's experience of visiting selected neighborhood parks and their overall evaluations of selected neighborhood parks. The study is notably done by gathering data from the residents based on their neighborhood parks' experiences, including the landscape features and facilities related to their experiences.

The Likert scale questions on user's experience of using park features at the neighborhood parks, open-ended questions were being applied in order to achieve more data on respondents' feelings and experiences on their thoughts. Then, the feedback from the information gathered from a minimum number of respondents (n = 382) will get into the development of semi-structured interview questions to discuss possible suggestions and recommendations for a better neighborhood park by interviewing a landscape architect and a planner.

The paper provides empirical insights on three particular themes that arise as significant in resident's experience of neighborhood parks in Kuala Lumpur. These three themes are by exploring the facilities of neighborhood parks, connection with natural features and the need for safety that has shown by the residents' experience and evaluation.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

The respondents consistently see neighborhood parks as a place for exercise, children's play area, social space and enjoying nature.

This paper fulfills an identified people's use and experience of neighborhood parks in Kuala Lumpur.

This paper attempts to assess the parking reliability with taking into account drivers' travel choice behaviors under various traffic conditions. Apart from the well-known travel-time reliability, a parking reliability is newly defined as the probability that the drivers' average searching time for parking is less than a given threshold. This is particularly important under conditions of shortage of parking spaces in urban areas. A Monte Carlo simulation approach, which incorporates a combined trip distribution and assignment model with explicit elastic demand function, is proposed to estimate the two reliability measures of road network (i.e. travel-time and parking reliabilities). A numerical example is used to illustrate the applications of the reliability measures and the proposed approach.

The US National Park Service (NPS) is responsible for the management of some of the most recognisable and notable natural and cultural resources in the USA. To make the case for additional maintenance funding, NPS is instituting life‐cycle cost management practices. Over the 50‐year life cycle of the Redwood Information Center at Redwood National and State Parks in Crescent City, California, custodial costs alone will sum to more than the total replacement construction cost for the entire facility. This point illustrates an important aspect regarding the true cost of operating and sustaining physical infrastructure over its life cycle. It also suggests that understanding life‐cycle costs is a critical element of effective, long‐term portfolio and asset management. Often, institutional owners of physical assets inadequately assess the true cost of building and owning facilities, typically overemphasising initial construction costs. Life‐cycle operations and maintenance (O&M) and capital renewal costs, however, almost always comprise a far greater percentage of total life‐cycle building costs. Using actual life‐cycle costs for an asset that is owned and managed by NPS, this paper explores the development of full life‐cycle costing, highlighting key life‐cycle cost drivers, of an information centre at the Redwood National and State Parks.