40+ Times Urban Planners Failed To Understand People’s Needs, And It Resulted In ‘Desire Paths’

You’re running late to the bus stop. You check your clock every few strides — there’s still hope to make it. But after you turn a corner, you see that the sidewalk you’ve been sprinting takes a ridiculous curve instead of going straight to the street where you need to go. So what do you do? Cut the line through the grass. You’ve just taken a ‘desire path,’ described by Robert Macfarlane as “paths & tracks made over time by the wishes & feet of walkers, especially those … that run contrary to design or planning”; he calls them “free-will ways.”

Robert Moor offers other terms, such as ‘cow paths,’ ‘pirate paths,’ ‘social trails,’ ‘kemonomichi (beast trails),’ ‘chemins de l’âne (donkey paths),’ and ‘Olifantenpad (elephant trails).’

JM Barrie described them as ‘Paths that have Made Themselves.’

Whichever word you decide to use, there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to these shortcuts, and it perfectly illustrates that urban developers aren’t always on top of their game. Or that people are just lazy. Or maybe it’s both!

01. Next Level Desire Path

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02. Desire Path Created By A Squirrel We Feed Peanuts To Every Morning

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03. Desire Path Recognition In The Netherlands

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04. Never Heard Of This Before, But Figured I Had The Perfect One

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05. Understandable Desire Path

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06. Been Here 30 Years, I Don’t Think The Gate Has Ever Been Used

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07. Beautiful Exemplar

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08. Update: Tree Is Budding + Secondary Path

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09. “Please, Take This Circuitous Route Following The Perimeter” Signed, The Architects

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10. We Won!

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11. Well Worn Wal-Mart Path. Deepest I’ve Ever Seen

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12. Desire Steps?

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13. Desire Stairs

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14. The Fast Track To Fastrac

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15. A Low-Tech Approach To Defeating A Desire Path

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16. They’re Both Kind Of Appealing

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17. This  Is A Walkway, Thanks Though, Lil’ Sign

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18. One Side Preferred

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19. Long, Foggy, More Direct Desire Path At UCSC

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20. Ultimate Acceptance

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21. My University Gave Into Our Desire Path- In A Way That Created Another, Smaller Desire Path

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22. One Of The Useful Desire Paths

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23. Desire Paths, Kaunas, Lithuania C.1976

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24. Miami U (Ohio) With The Awareness!!

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25. It’s Not Very Long, But It’s Got Character

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26. Desire Path So Strong Is Goes Through A Metal Mesh Fence

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27. Absolute Behemoth Desired Path Next To The College In My Home Town

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28. Frosty Scotland

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29. Three Years Ago, I Posted About A Desire Path On My Campus. We Are Successful!

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30. Desire Path To Avoid A Branch Hanging Over Another Larger Desire Path

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31. My Daughter Found The Shortest Way Home

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32. I See One In The Making

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33. Desire Path? Give Me That Desire Street!

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34. Rest In Peace, My Friend

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35. A Particular Pointless One

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36. A Long Stretch Of Train Tracks Separates Two Shopping Centers. No Amount Of Signs Can Stop People

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37. A Cool One In My Town

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38. Just Saved 3 Seconds With This Beauty, 6 If You Count The Return Trip

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39. Running Down The Desire Path

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40. A Rejection Of The Most Confusing Section Of Sidewalk In My Apartment Complex

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41. Smallest Desire Path: Cyclists Avoiding A Small Gap-Bump On The Asphalt

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42. Spotted On The UC Riverside Campus

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43. Public Footpaths In The UK Through Fields Are Desire Highways

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