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Human nature (lemmy.world)
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[-] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 122 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

But why is it human nature to put a bench right where people are walking. It's like people in charge get off on creating obstacles for the common man just to feel powerful.

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago

Over time, it will destroy large parts of the park.

[-] nesc@lemmy.cafe 114 points 2 weeks ago

Well, don't design park the brain-dead way and try to actually think about visitors and their needs. As in make a straight route to a damn crosswalk instead of making it an obstacle course.

[-] donuts@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

What? No! You should be happy to even get any green to begin with.

- Capitalism

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 38 points 2 weeks ago

A field of monoculture grass is already destroyed.

[-] Markus29@feddit.nl 12 points 2 weeks ago

Ackchyually, grass is almost always a mixture of different species (ryegrass, fescue and bluegrass) and therefore not a monoculture.

A lawn has its uses in parks, for example to have a Picknick. If you trow in some clover, daisies and ribwort, don't spray and patches are left to grow to provide shelter it's not that bad for biodiversity, depending on the climate of course.

Example of patch of long grass

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, there's grass and then there's grass. Sure. I got no beef with a field of mixed grass that's left to grow, especially if there's mixed native wildflowers etc.

It's the fields of monoculture non-native grass that the Suburban White Dude[tm] wants to obsessively cultivate and that seems to be the goal of parks departments everywhere that's the problem.

My partner ranted to me the other day that she couldn't get a 10m^2 area from a local municipal parks department recently for a Miyawaki forest plot. No reasons, just "no." Very frustrating group of fuckin' boomers.

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[-] Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de 94 points 2 weeks ago

To everybody acting like the desire path is the problem:

  1. If the problem for you is that it's 'bad' or 'illegal', grow a spine so that when you need to break the law, for something that matters, you can do it with dry pants.
  2. If the design doesn't take into account how people will interact with it, it's bad and lazy. Only time it would be acceptable to 'force' a way to interact with something is when there are safety concerns, and there are none here.
  3. You are traped in a cage of your own making, break free or perish like the dog you are.
[-] Klear@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago

I wanted to say that surely nobody is complaining about desire paths and then I scrolled just a little bit... yikes!

[-] slaacaa@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

Today, Iโ€™m astonished to learn about the existence of anti-desire path people based on the comments here

[-] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago

Seriously. The rabidly boot licking deference obedience and weird conflation if the constructed with the natural/universal is like the worst thing we get from the mostly-christian (anti)intellectual tradition.

These people are not fit to be adults in a built environment. Their states if mind should not be allowed in a world with such feats of artifice as concrete and movable type.

[-] CoffeeVector@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Ok being real dude, I don't think this behavior is a product of "mostly-christian (anti)intellectual tradition," it's just the type of people who never grew out of the color-in-the-lines and follow-your-line-buddy stuff from grade school. I don't think there's any spectacular political statement to be made here.

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[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 69 points 2 weeks ago

I think it was a US uni campus, that redid the lawn and didn't put down any walking paths and waited for the desire paths to form and then paved those

[-] tamman2000@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

I was coming here to say that! It's possibly apocryphal, but the way I heard it was that the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign did this when they did their main quad (I still remember them telling me this when I got a tour before applying there 30 years ago). And they didn't just look for where the plants were dead, but they also looked for broadleaf weeds, which sustain trampling better than grasses (it's a land grant university in the midwest. Of course there's an agriculture angle).

[-] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 45 points 2 weeks ago

This specific case would be super predictable, notice how the desire path becomes wider at the end. Pedestrian path should always do that because that's how people walk.

[-] Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago

I love how almost every comment talks as if the pedestrians were the problem, and not designers.

Just made the footpath in box 2 the actual path, and slap additional stuff anywhere not-on-top-of-where-peiople-walk.

[-] Kichae@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 weeks ago

The Internet is populated by people who think English grammar is cosmic law, so it doesn't surprise me that they think you should bend over for dogshit urban planning.

Ironically, none of them follow the rule of shutting up if they don't know shit about shit.

[-] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 33 points 2 weeks ago

I love how the third and second to last panel are the same, as if nature paused briefly before it decided to open another path.

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago

Human nature, not just nature.

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[-] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago
[-] huppakee@feddit.nl 19 points 2 weeks ago

An early documented example is Broadway in New York City, which follows the Wecquaesgeek trail which predates American colonization.

Nice

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 23 points 2 weeks ago

I like how upset people are in the comments. Even has random ass comments about capitalism. This is great lol

[-] REDACTED@infosec.pub 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Isn't that normal on lemmy? It's also fully expected to see some comments about Israel under every post no matter how unrelated it is. People made fun of political obsession on reddit, but to me lemmy has always felt much worse in this regard

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[-] Trihilis@ani.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

Meme successful.

[-] prole 21 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

My brain is so Death Stranding-coded right now that I tried to give the path a bunch of likes ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

[-] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 21 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Sometimes it is just carelessness of the people. Being blind to your fellow people's needs. Dropping trash where they stand. Refusing to walk two extra steps on the pathway and kill the grass instead.

In this case the requirements analysis of the parks and recreations dept was just bad and they are the asshole.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

The parks department tried to work against what people wanted by blocking the path people wanted to use.

[-] cholesterol@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

I wonder if the experience of 'shortcut' is part of the motivation, so that as soon as you've established a path, what constitutes 'shortcut' also changes. I'd be interested to know if curved paths were more desire path-resistant, because they appeal to an intuition about adjusting (and therefore optimizing) course.

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[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You say this is human nature, but I see this comments section filled with good little doggies that follow master's rules.

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[-] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 weeks ago

The problem is a lack of "Beware of Grass Ticks" signs.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Beware of ticks, land mines, and bear traps.

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 13 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

"desire paths" well and good, but who (above the age of 15) is jumping a hedge to save 3 second walk time? Must be next to a school.

[-] Uruanna@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm more concerned about the city planner who was so strongly against the idea that the path should be coming right out of that crosswalk. That's just insulting, like they WANT everyone to waste just 3 more seconds.

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[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 weeks ago

This comment section is surprisingly spicy

[-] Jerb322@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's just a few extra steps, you lazy fuckers!

[-] Taldan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

It's poor urban design. Put paths where people want to go

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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
939 points (100.0% liked)

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