Path of desire

More blossom! But that is not what this is about.

Over the past 20 years that I've been coming to the out-of-town shopping centre 15 miles from my home I've always used this short cut (pedestrian that I am) rather than the pavement that follows the vehicular route around to the left. Why go the longer way when you can duck through a gap in the fence and slither down a grassy bank, steadying yourself if necessary on the ornamental cherry tree which happens to be  in bloom just now? I cherish the path that has been formed by the non-wheeled free spirits who do this in their eagerness to reach M&S, Boots and Next.

But only today have I discovered that informal tracks like this are known as 'desire paths' - not retail desire so much as the instinctive urge to get where you want to go by the most direct route: through the hedge, across the grass, over the flowerbed etc. If you look out for them you notice them everywhere - it is said that it takes only 15 traverses to forge a new trail that others will follow, regardless of attempts to prevent them  with barriers and prohibitions. (You can see a whole bunch of desire paths  in a Flickr group here.)  Now, planners and landscapers have realised it makes more sense to wait and see the ways people want to go rather than impose paths that won't get used. I love this fact  - it's truly a triumph of pedestrian anarchism.

Fuller explanatory article here.