After Dark: Unveiling the Impact of Vondelpark’s Urban Design on Women’s Subjective Safety at Night

This thesis investigates the effect of Vondelpark's urban architecture on women's perceptions of safety at night. While green areas have been shown to improve people's lives in a variety of ways, women use them less due to feelings of unsafety. By examining visibility, maintenance, cleanliness, external protection, other park users, and mobility facilities, this study attempts to identify the most critical elements contributing to this increased sense of unsafety. Using primary and secondary literature, a theoretical framework was developed that looks further into perceived safety and the park components that impact it. Also, through semi-structured interviews, where women were questioned about the relevance of these elements, utilizing voluntary response sampling (N=5), more in-depth accounts about women's subjective safety emerged. After examining many methodologies, this thesis concludes that visibility, external protection, and other park users are the most important elements...Show moreThis thesis investigates the effect of Vondelpark's urban architecture on women's perceptions of safety at night. While green areas have been shown to improve people's lives in a variety of ways, women use them less due to feelings of unsafety. By examining visibility, maintenance, cleanliness, external protection, other park users, and mobility facilities, this study attempts to identify the most critical elements contributing to this increased sense of unsafety. Using primary and secondary literature, a theoretical framework was developed that looks further into perceived safety and the park components that impact it. Also, through semi-structured interviews, where women were questioned about the relevance of these elements, utilizing voluntary response sampling (N=5), more in-depth accounts about women's subjective safety emerged. After examining many methodologies, this thesis concludes that visibility, external protection, and other park users are the most important elements impacting women's experienced safety at night at Vondelpark.Show less

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After Dark: Unveiling the Impact of Vondelpark’s Urban Design on Women’s Subjective Safety at Night