A desire path, also known as desire line in transportation planning and many other names, [a] is an unplanned small trail formed by erosion caused by human or animal traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and destination, and the width and severity of its surface erosion are often ...

Oct 31, 2024 · Desire paths are human-made shortcuts worn into the dirt and grass. They're fascinating and symbolic and people absolutely love them. But what can we learn from how Desire Paths form?

Mar 19, 2024 · Navigating beyond the organised pavements and parks of our urban spaces, desire paths are the unofficial footprints of a community, revealing the unspoken preferences, shared shortcuts and collective choices of humans.

Mar 18, 2019 · Desire paths — or desire lines, as they're more formally known in urban planning — are the well-worn pedestrian pathways formed by simple erosion and a successive line of people deciding: “Nah,...

Jan 25, 2016 · Informal ‘desire paths‘ can form with as few as fifteen traversals of an unpaved route, creating spontaneous new trails shaped by pedestrians effectively voting with their feet. These paths frequently become self-reinforcing: others intuit the potential advantages of a newly-forming route and follow it, thus eroding it further and enhancing ...

Apr 24, 2019 · Broadway, following the “Native American-made Wickquasgeck Path, which is thought to have been the shortest route between pre-colonial settlements in Manhattan that avoided swamps and hills,” is believed to be the oldest desire path in the U.S.

Aug 26, 2024 · Desire lines are informal pathways that are created, not by planners or traffic engineers, but by the continual, repetitive movement of people through them. Typically shortcuts between two...

Nov 29, 2021 · Desire paths, as the name indicates, are informal pathways created by pedestrians, bikers, and animals that carve out routes considered more desirable to travelers. Oftentimes, these paths are shortcuts or easier routes than the paved routes in place.

Jun 22, 2024 · Desire paths, also known as desire lines or pig trails, are pathways that form through repetitive usage by humans and animals. These paths are often shortcuts that people take, eroding the landscape and indicating a collective preference for more direct or convenient routes over established paths.

Desire paths have played a part in the evolution of road structures in many towns and cities. Older streets, ones based on centuries-old routes, will often be at least partly positioned through desire path-like influences, although the issue of land ownership tends to trump this wherever it can.