There's a college in Chicago, i think it's IIT maybe, that used aerial photography to map out the student cow paths, then they redid all the sidewalks to incorporate those paths.

Edit: they ended up adding a building in a grassy area and maintained all the hall/walkways of the building in line with the sidewalks/cowpaths. Kinda neat.

[–] sverit@feddit.de 61 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Ohio State University

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

Brilliant!

[–] Kase@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

My old college looked a lot like that! I wouldn't be surprised if they were copying their idea

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

The grass is hot lava.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

This has happened at a LOT of colleges. Penn State's quad is crisscrossed with paths that they paved.

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd be surprised if students didn't immediately make new paths off the new sidewalks

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago (2 children)

why would they, desire paths happen because the initial pavements aren't designed well.

[–] volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

We had that in my local park. There was a huge field that everyone walked through because it was much quicker than going around. So they finally made a sidewalk there (not with tarmac though, more like gravel and sand mix). Just a couple of weeks later there was a new path just parallel to this one. My guess is the problem was that the field was a bit hole shaped (sorry I don't know a better term in English) and this, as well just the nature of the sidewalk, led to it accumulating water puddles, and also it just turned into sandy/stoney mud when it rained. For bikes it was also just more comfortable to ride over the grass than over gravel. But it still felt like an asshole move.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago

"Concave?"

[–] uis@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

For bikes it was also just more comfortable to ride over the grass than over gravel.

True. Personal experience.

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because that's exactly what has happened multiple times at the community college I go to.

[–] Kase@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just pave the entire thing at that point (sarcasm) (pls don't do this)

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

Sadly this seems to be exactly their plan, just as soon as the government gives them another $10*10^6 to lose

[–] Trollivier@sh.itjust.works 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I love this type of urbanism. Some cities also study how cars behave in winter by looking at the tracks in the street, and they realized cars actually needed much less room on street corners than they thought.

[–] uis@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Every winter I see same corner filled with snow and nothing changed. They for sure need to cut some corners.