Assessing the users` perceptions, preferences, and reasons for use of urban greenway in Aydın-Koşuyolu province

Urbanization has been increasing in Turkey as it increases all over the world. As of 2010, 70% of the total population of Turkish citizens live in cities. Urbanization has brought the need of recreation for people along with it. One of the most important areas that is used to meet this requirement is called "greenway." Researches have shown that to be successful and to ensure continuity of these areas user requests and preferences should be taken into account and users` supports to these areas should be ensured. The purpose of this article was to determine distance of users` home to greenway, frequency of greenway use, and users` spending time in greenway and to investigate their relationships. Data were collected through a survey with 417 active users on the field. The data were analyzed with Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results showed a moderate negative and statistically significant association between distance and frequency of use (r = -.25, p≤ .001), a moderate positive and statistically significant relationship between frequency of use and spending time (r = -.28, p≤ .001). It was also found that greenway was used to walk (77.7%), to keep healthy (74.1%), to do sports (68.3%), and to reduce stress and relax (59.7%). Lack/insufficient of water and fountains (84.2 %) and lack/insufficient of restrooms (71.2%) were found to be two most important perceived problems by users. When planning and designing greenways it is recommended that distance of greenways should be close to human living environments, greenways should be accessible and there should be fountains and restrooms to fulfill human water and toilet needs