97 Times Urban Planners Failed To Predict What People Want, And It Resulted In ‘Desire Paths’ (New Pics)

Desire paths, aka desire lines, are formed when human beings or animals take the most efficient shortcuts to get where they need to go. In short, these trails are proof that living beings want to save time and energy. They are naturally incredibly efficiency-oriented.

However, not all urban planners, architects, and city builders are aware of this inclination. What they sketch in their blueprints and designs doesn’t always include citizens’ wants and needs for efficient movement. In short, city designs sometimes lack empathy because they are detached from the people actually living there.

It takes very little for a desire path to form! As few as 15 walks across a stretch of unpaved ground are enough to begin wearing in a visible trail.

Then, since a trail is already (ever so slightly) visible, it sends out an ‘invitation’ for more and more people to walk down it, thus becoming even more worn.

So, if you had even just a bit of patience, you could quickly and intentionally establish a few desire paths in your neighborhood. That being said, these trails are chosen because they’re the most efficient. Paths that aren’t as efficient get discarded for new ones that save time.

Based on recent research, people tend to naturally turn left and walk in an anticlockwise direction. “If you simply ask someone to start walking, whether they are wandering around a museum, a supermarket, or even an empty room, it is surprisingly likely that they will drift counterclockwise,” says Dr Iñaki Echeverría-Huarte, at the University of Navarra in Spain.

“Each of us carries a small personal bias to turn slightly to one side, and when many people share a space, those tiny biases add up into a net counterclockwise rotation.” Dr Echeverría-Huarte notes.

“None of us is perfectly symmetrical, and the way each person’s brain gathers sensory information and coordinates it with the muscles seems to tip them gently to one side. I should be honest, though. We have tested several ideas and the bias stubbornly keeps showing up, so the exact mechanism is still an open question.”

Walking has many benefits for your physical, mental, and even emotional well-being. For example, in a workplace context, it can even boost your creativity, improve your mood, reduce stress, strengthen positive relationships, and lighten the symptoms of burnout.

According to researcher, speaker, consultant, and teacher Jeffrey Davis, M.A., the author of Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity, integrating walking meetings into your work life can be a positive shift. However, where you walk matters as much (if not more) as you walk in the first place.

In a post on Psychology Today, he notes how green and quiet spaces lead to better results than walking indoors. “If possible, map out a few safe, nature-rich routes near your workplace. Even small parks or tree-lined sidewalks can provide the psychological relief needed to support creativity and connection,” he writes.

Meanwhile, low-intensity walking holds the most benefits for divergent thinking. That being said, you have to take your colleagues’ needs into consideration and be as clear and inclusive as possible.

“Not all employees may feel comfortable or safe taking a walk during work. Consider access and comfort levels such as mobility, weather, clothing, and personal safety. Offer options. When walking together, side-by-side conversation can reduce hierarchy and loosen the sense of pressure that sometimes comes with face-to-face meetings,” Davis notes.

Earlier, our team here at Bored Panda got in touch with the moderator team that keeps the ‘Desire Path’ online community running smoothly.

“Once people know they [desire paths] have a name, they start seeing them all over the place. It’s a ‘once you see, you can’t unsee’ scenario,” a moderator opened up to us during a previous interview.

“If you haven’t noticed a desire path before, look for worn-down grass made by people who step off the sidewalk and decide to take the shortcut instead. They’re not the designated, paved paths. They’re paths that are trod on the grass in between,” the moderator shared with us how we can all tell what counts as a desire path.

According to the moderator, in Dutch, some people call desire paths ‘elephant paths.’ “I think the translation is Olifantenpaadje. Someone on the subreddit said they’re called Trampelpfad in German,” the mod told us. However, they noted that they’re not quite sure how common these terms actually are.

“When I originally joined the subreddit, it was about 3,000 subscribers deep. I’d seen someone mention it in a comment section, likely on a post of a desire path on /r/pics or a mention in r/AskReddit of these paths being paved following natural foot traffic on a college campus,” they said.

“A user named SecularScience created the subreddit after someone posted a picture of a desire path on another subreddit, probably r/pics, and a commenter noted that they have a name! It [the online community] emerged out of curiosity,” the moderator told the Bored Panda team.

“When someone unknowingly posts a picture of a desire path, people tag the subreddit and the community grows,” they said, adding that the community grows through word of mouth.

We want to hear your thoughts! Share your perspective in the comments section at the very bottom of this post. But before you do that, don’t forget to upvote your favorite photos.

Do you tend to avoid desire paths overall, or do you find a guilty sort of pleasure walking where there’s no pavement? What desire paths do you take on your way to work, school, or your local supermarket? Where have you recently traveled, and what was your experience like?

Join the conversation and tell us all about it.