Location and allocation of recreation facilities: public swimming pools in London, Ontario.

Discusses 2 approaches to the location of recreation facilities, using public swimming pools in London, Ontario as a case study. The first treats the objective as one of providing the service within a standard distance of as great a proportion of the general population as possible. The second argues that individual spatial behaviour, as expressed in patterns of use, is often markedly different from abstract standards, and forms a better basis for planning. A spatial interaction model is fitted to observed patterns of swimming trips and used as the allocation rule in a location allocation solution for two new sites. The differences in results illustrate the methodological and political issues inherent in the 2 approaches. -Authors