… especially if the neighborhood is filled with little shits with too many electrified toys.

EDIT: Okay, I’m convinced. Regular bikes would actually be a sensible cause here. Let me be a curmudgeon though.

  • Manticore@lemmy.nz
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    1 day ago

    I know a university campus (forget the name) let students build desire paths first while the site was under landscaping, and when they moved onto paving they actually paved the desire paths themselves. It created a funky aesthetic and comfortable spiderweb weaving through the grounds.

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    The original path design is exceedingly stupid. Sidewalks are not a place for this kinda artistic pathing, they are a functional element of public infrastructure. Its barely even wide enough for a wheelchair. Put that kinda path in a park somewhere, not next to a road, then people wont make a shortcut to get past it.

    • wjrii@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      Welcome to American suburbia; the sidewalk is basically meant to serve the purpose of a park path. The nearest shop of any kind whatsoever is 1.3km away, and if anything that’s not considered that bad.

      • ZeffSyde@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The shop is 1.3km away, but because of no road crossings or sidewalks it’s actually a 5km trip without a car.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        Wheelchair users who want to visit their neighbors should be grateful the pavers lie flat, not heaved up by tree roots. (And in fact the flat grass might be a smoother way around such obstacles, except when too muddy.) The grass exists for dogs to pee and poop on. Looks like owners have been decent about scooping, at least.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      If they had made it straight there would be a diagonal desire path going right instead, only solution is to concrete everything!

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    They design sidewalks the way they should be designing roads: slow, deliberately requiring attention, and inconvenient.

    Every time I see a cut through like that, I know that the planner failed at their job, because they failed to design for humans of all ages and abilities.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      Civil engineering should be an art that follows life in many cases, like the sidewalk design, and not force a design that is inconvenient or inefficient.

      • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        The ability to give a fuck about someone else’s idea of aesthetics when you prefer function… You know, the basic cause of desire paths.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        I guess you don’t have people in wheelchairs or walkers where you live.

        Sidewalks shouldn’t be designed as obstacle courses.

      • Auli@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        People are going to take the shortest route. And they know this it happens everywhere.

  • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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    3 days ago

    It takes special kind of delusional thinking to design a Y-shaped path in a place like this. What you need, is a triangle.

    • wjrii@lemmy.worldOP
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      Honestly, the desire path makes sense. The entitled shits are just generally not safe vehicle operators, though.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    2 days ago

    The entire sidewalk down to the edge of the city I am in on one side of the main road is “wavy” in such a way that if you followed the sidewalk, it would take you 4 times as long to walk 2 blocks than it would if you were across the main road where the sidewalk is just straight. It’s so fucking stupid.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    I don’t know why, but as soon as I saw the picture my brain said, “Oh, that’s bicycles.”

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      When you’re going at high speed (particularly when you’re a kid on a jacky bike that doesn’t handle well) taking that weird turn is a recipe for either crashing into the bush or losing your balance.

      Why risk it? Just take the grassy route.

      • litchralee@sh.itjust.works
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        That, plus if there are any pedestrians using the path, they should get first dibs. Bicycles can ride on grass just fine, but anyone with a walker, a wheelchair, a stroller, or just wants to keep their shoes clean, should not feel like they have to squeeze or get off the pavement to let a bicyclist pass.

        Here, the convenient option for bikes is also the most friendly option. Ornamental grass shouldn’t even be a top-10 concern. If the municipality won’t build proper infra for all users, then desire paths are all but guaranteed.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 days ago

        Okay, fair enough. As a former child myself, that’s eminently reasonable, LOL. Post text updated. :-)

        Still too many 12yo kids on overpowered electric minibikes around here.

  • nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 days ago

    If it really bothers you, extend the garden and add landscape rocks. Grass is ugly no matter the state it is in

      • Wahots@pawb.social
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        1 day ago

        Don’t plant bamboo, it’s like English ivy or Himalayan blackberry but worse.

        We planted it in a containment barrier. It jumped the barrier and is almost impossible to remove.