The Designed Path Less Travelled

The suburban sidewalk is a funny thing. 

In urban blocks, the sidewalk is attuned to the infrastructure and architecture. Sidewalks that run in clean lines along perfect grids make sense. Guided by large buildings and density, people follow the trails cut by such walkways intuitively and naturally. The rectilinear nature of the walkway is generally pleasing to designers and users alike. 

Once you leave the dense infrastructure of the city, though, something changes. With the prospect of more open space, with the condition of fewer people moving in unison in a constrained system, people change. The path of the majority becomes the shortest path, whether or not that path is actually the one the sidewalk follows. 

How many times have you seen something like this? 

A designer or planner crafted a curvilinear sidewalk around trees but didn't consider the thought, "If people are in a hurry to leave, what would be the path most would take?" 

Even more comical and telling though is perhaps this: 

How did this path come to be? Did someone want to save a three seconds on their walk, and suddenly everyone else did the same? It's absurd in a way, because this beaten path obviously doesn't make a person's travels all that much more expedient. and yet it's not. We have all seen these paths, and we have all taken these paths. Something about our sense of urgency or way of navigating causes us to create and take these paths regularly, whether it be trampling a two foot fillet at the right angled sidewalks in suburban streets or carving our own way to parking lots across campus. 

When all is said and done, I think the way in which people utilize (or don't) utilize sidewalks shows that regardless of what one's intent is as a designer, people will find a way to use places as they need or as they please. So, why not consider that in the first place?