Bifalgorithm post

Have you ever seen these paths where people just take the shortest route they can? They actually have a name. They're called Desire Paths. And they tell us a lot about human psychology and the way places get designed. When Ohio State University was designing one of the main sections of its campus, it started not with building paths, but watching what people did. As enough people walked a certain route, they began to create a Desire Path. But the designers then looked at these paths and built the actual design around these Desire Paths, leading to this wild looking shape. And this whole thing asks the question, what's the best way to design a pathway? Does a path made by people walking repeatedly count as design? Well, one of the most famous streets in the world, Broadway in New York City, was designed this way. You'll notice it's one of the only curved streets in Manhattan, and that's because it predates modern New York. It was originally a Lenape footpath in pre-colonial Manhattan that was designed and built by people walking on it, turning it into a pathway. This sunken lane in France is a similar story. People creating a pathway by walking it is designed. Places often get designed from this top-down view, and sometimes you can miss the ways people actually use a space. Desire paths remind us that people have their own ideas about the best path to walk.

Have you ever seen these paths where people just take the shortest route they can? They actually have a name. They're called Desire Paths. And they tell us a l…