Desire paths

One of the things I'm becoming more attuned to on my urban hikes is the presence of desire paths--paths that walkers create when a sidewalk or trail, or lack thereof, fails to serve their needs or desires. In urban environments, desire paths may reflect poor planning or design. Often, desire paths are the most direct or convenient route from point A to point B.

It makes sense to find desire paths in places that lack planned paths--e.g. on city blocks lacking sidewalks. In Durham's sidewalkless residential neighborhoods, people generally walk in the street; when walking in streets is too dangerous, walkers pound out safer paths.

A straight and narrow desire path on busy N. Roxboro Road

Metaphor: the sidewalk turns to puddled desire path at A Lot of Cars

Broken sidewalks also motivate walkers to create new paths:

Path to avoid broken sidewalk on Forestview Street

Sometimes desire paths demand to be acknowledged. 

A business responded to this desire path with pavers

When no safe walking routes are available along city streets, I appreciate desire paths, with gratitude to all those the walkers who came before me and pounded them into place. In green spaces, though, desire paths can be problematic: sidestepping managed trails can result in undesirable erosion or trampled plants. 

It takes an impressively small amount of feeling inconvenienced by an existing sidewalk or trail for walkers to veer off it in favor of desire paths, as evidenced by Sandy Creek Park (a Durham city park) and the South Ellerbee Creek Trail (a 1.4-mile portion of the North/South Greenway). 

Sandy Creek Park is part of a wetlands restoration project that sits on 101.7 acres formerly used by the city for a wastewater treatment plant. The park attracts abundant birds and other wildlife, and human visitors can experience the park on a mix of paved and unpaved trails. I visited the park for the first time on a rainy day in early March, when parts of the paved trail were flooded. Judging from the desire paths, these sections of trail flood regularly:

Short puddle, short desire path

Long puddle, long desire path

No good alternative: puddle on trail, mud on sides...

...but folks tromp through the mud anyway

Even the unpaved park trails showed signs of desire paths:

A muddy patch of trail (center right)...

...impels a drier detour to be trampled into existence

The 1.4-mile long South Ellerbee Creek Trail* runs alongside Ellerbe Creek* between West Trinity Avenue and West Club Boulevard. The trail offers users a welcome respite from city traffic and noise, with easy access to the trail from any of six cross-streets. (*Yes, standard spellings of Ellerbe[e] give the trail name two Es on the end and the creek name just one.) 

Greenway entrance on W. Trinity

A desire path to access a view of the creek

Markham St. Not sure what motivates this one...

Double whammy on Green St: desire paths to left and right

Spray-painted orange arrow: is the city making this desire path official?

Cutting curves before the bridge

Cutting corners on Knox St.

Approaching Club Blvd: two desire paths before the intersection

Cut the stroll short here?...

...or here?

Spray-painted arrows (pointing against traffic)--part of a city plan?

While I was photographing this spot, a couple exited the greenway using the earlier of the two desire paths. I'm not sure what the equation is for balancing the joys of a stroll with avoiding unnecessary steps. Perhaps once cars--or the sidewalk--are visible, the greenway's appeal dissipates.

From the South Ellerbee Greenway, my route home took me along a stretch of greenway between Washington Street and Duke Park. I exited the path onto Glendale, noticing for the first time that there's a paved connection between the trail and the street. Actually, I'm aware of the paved connection when I head from Glendale onto the trail, but I don't usually notice it when I head from the trail onto Glendale. I've contributed many a muddy footstep to this desire path, occasionally wondering why the city never bothered to pave it!

The greenway-to-Glendale desire path is still evolving in the mud. In the battle between taking the desire path and taking the sidewalk just a few feet to its left, I'm sure the desire path will emerge victorious.

Where's the least muddy place to step (other than the nearby sidewalk)?