Desire paths: the illicit trails that defy the urban planners | Cities | The Guardian - 0 views
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[pop-up] urbain on 05 Oct 18"e've all been there. You want a short cut - to the bus stop, office or corner shop - but there's no designated path. Others before you have already flattened the grass, or cut a line through a hedge. Why not, you think. So goes the logic of "desire paths" - described by Robert Macfarlane as "paths & tracks made over time by the wishes & feet of walkers, especially those paths that run contrary to design or planning"; he calls them "free-will ways". The New Yorker offers other names: "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"."