In recent years, considerable attention has been given to issues of human crowding. While some general models have been proposed, this article presents a model of crowding specifically addressing recreation settings and integrating past research on recreational crowding with developing perspectives on park image and social definition. Perceived crowding is demonstrated to be the result of a dynamic process influenced by site image, subjective interpretation of objective reality, and constant reassessment of site conditions' salience to individual goals. This perspective extends past research and demonstrates the utility of an environment-behavior approach in addressing both the theoretical and practical issues of crowding in recreation settings. The model is applicable to a wide range of public settings; implications for future research and application are discussed.
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