Guelph study looks at positive impact of ice rinks on city life

If you're looking for a friendly location to interact with super-chill people, you may want to lace up the skates and head to an outdoor public skating rink.

Researchers at the University of Guelph spent 100 hours observing the social interactions of people at the Nathan Philips Square rink in Toronto and the Market Square rink in downtown Guelph.

Professors Mervyn Horgan and Saara Liinamaa who lead the Sociable Cities Project at the university found the space was shared respectfully by a diverse group of people and the interactions were positive.

"Generally you try to respect people's personal space, you know, personal boundaries, but at a skating rink, it's considered completely fine if you slide into somebody, fall over them, if you accidentally grab onto them because they're falling down," said Liinamaa.

"It encourages positive interactions, things like kids will help older adults who can't skate."

The research team picked these two locations as they were exclusively for skating and in the downtown near public transit.

Liinamaa, Horgan and three sociology and anthropology undergraduates were not only observers — they also took to the ice for some physical winter activity.

The research team believes the outdoor rinks could improve the social life of a city and help municipal planners design infrastructure to enhance social interaction in public spaces. They plan to study the experiences people have on outdoor rinks further, Horgan said.

"We want to dig down a little bit, and find some more about how people experience it," Horgan said.

"How do we kind of learn from the lessons of the rink to help cultivate other kinds of spaces where people can have pleasurable interactions across various kinds of social differences where the stakes don't feel especially high?"

They're looking at other locations that have similar set ups and hope to do more research in the winter of 2021/22 after the threat of COVID-19 has passed.