There's a college in Chicago, i think it's IIT maybe, that used aerial photography to map out the student cow paths, then they redid all the sidewalks to incorporate those paths.

Edit: they ended up adding a building in a grassy area and maintained all the hall/walkways of the building in line with the sidewalks/cowpaths. Kinda neat.

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I'd be surprised if students didn't immediately make new paths off the new sidewalks

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (6 children)

why would they, desire paths happen because the initial pavements aren't designed well.

[–] volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We had that in my local park. There was a huge field that everyone walked through because it was much quicker than going around. So they finally made a sidewalk there (not with tarmac though, more like gravel and sand mix). Just a couple of weeks later there was a new path just parallel to this one. My guess is the problem was that the field was a bit hole shaped (sorry I don't know a better term in English) and this, as well just the nature of the sidewalk, led to it accumulating water puddles, and also it just turned into sandy/stoney mud when it rained. For bikes it was also just more comfortable to ride over the grass than over gravel. But it still felt like an asshole move.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

"Concave?"

[–] uis@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

For bikes it was also just more comfortable to ride over the grass than over gravel.

True. Personal experience.

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