Urban trailblazing

[glatt]

I'm an urban trail blazer.

There's a city park that I cut through every day. The designer of the park, years ago, put paved paths in a nice layout surrounding a central fountain. They are nice for winding through the park and looking at the views of the trees and the fountain.

But if you want to walk from one corner of the park, diagonally across to the opposite corner, the paved paths take you way out of your way. The extra time this takes is enough that you miss the walk signal at the opposite end of the park, and have to wait for another cycle of the lights before you can cross the street.

I decided I needed to create a path here, where the red line is.


So one morning, two years ago, when there was a group of fast walking commuters right on my heels, I walked quickly, with determination, right up to the corner where the paved path either goes right or left, and I walked across the pristine grass. I could sense that two people followed me across the grass. I had never seen anybody walk there before.

I kept walking across the grass each morning after that. Most mornings, nobody followed me, but a few mornings some people would.

One morning, about a week or two later, I was at the back of a group of people, and I saw someone ahead of me walk across the grass on their own!

This was in May of 2010. And I took a picture of the grass for a cellar treasure hunt in the "worn" category.


Fast forward to this morning, in May of 2012, and the "grass" path gets more use than the paved paths. It's sometimes crowded on the dirt path now. People are using it a lot. Taking a picture of it is something I have to do on the sly, otherwise people think I'm taking a picture of them.


I feel a little proud, and also a little bad. I totally destroyed this nice patch of grass in a pretty park. But I created an improvement in the infrastructure that hundreds of people use every day. I measured it on Google Earth, and my path only saves 26 feet of walking, but it saves waiting another light cycle to cross the street, so it saves about 2 minutes for a couple hundred people every day.

I don't post this to brag, but I think it's interesting. I don't know of any other documentation by somebody who started one of these cut through paths. You see them all over the place, so there is nothing novel about them. But I figured I would document the process.

[jimhelm]

for your penance, you must run around the long way and save the 26 seconds for a week.

[Beest]

Wasn't there a sign, and teeny tiny fence, that's what you get in the colonies, no standards, good job Parkie didn't see you.

[glatt]

Teeny tiny fences in other areas, like near the steps, but not in this spot. And no signs at all.

[Rhianne]

People who have achieved less call themselves Engineers.

[Sundae]

Voting with your feet.

If it was someone's garden I'd view this as an act of vandalism.
But it's not. A park is a living, breathing public space and I certainly don't consider the grass "destroyed" in that context.

It makes a small difference, but that difference might be enough to stop someone getting in their car just because they woke up slightly late. Also you've removed a minor irritation from so many people's lives. I'll bet if you pay it forward you'll have saved marriages, prevented violence, alcoholism and miscarriages.

Okay that's tongue in cheek.
But I have had many occasions to want to strangle planners who put petty nuisances in the way of pedestrians. I wouldn't have those uncharitable thoughts if someone was able to sneak in a shortcut (sadly most of ours are literally set in stone - well, concrete)

[limey]

I heard somewhere that the landscapers of new housing projects didn't plan the paths til after people had moved in and begun to create the most natural routes ... Can't remember where, though ...


Sent by thought transference

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by limey

I heard somewhere that the landscapers of new housing projects didn't plan the paths til after people had moved in and begun to create the most natural routes ... Can't remember where, though ...

Almost definitely Scandinavia. Or as far South as the Netherlands.
Certainly not in this country.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by glatt

I don't know of any other documentation by somebody who [anything]. You see [anything] all over the place, so there is nothing novel about them. But I figured I would document the process.

This thread is exactly what is awesome about the internet--and exactly how it has transformed and enriched human culture in a way never before possible.

And I know that there are still people who have no idea this has happened. They are living in the old world. They are literally living on the pages of a history book that we are looking at, from the future. We are in their future; although both sets of people are alive on the Earth at the same time.

Transformations of human culture used to take thousands of years, then hundreds, then decades. At this point, the complete cycle of cultural transformation has taken place in much less than the span of a normal person's adulthood years.

The acceleration continues, and it is exponential.

At some point, change will happen so fast, it will be immeasurable.

The point in time at which this will first occur is referred to by Ray Kurzweil as "the singularity" i.e. the point at which existing models break down and can no longer adequately describe reality.

[ZenGum]

Glatt, what you have created there is known in landscape architecture as a Desire Line.

For making it, you have earned the title of Meanderthal.

I think you did good.

[monster]

I give it three years tops before they pave it. Or plant a "feature" in the middle of it. Excellent trailblazing and documentation

[BigV]

@glatt:

I suppose the assessment of the net value of your actions including (especially) the actions of the others who followed the example you set depends very much on what one values. If grass is highly valued, the result is negative. If efficiency is highly valued, the result is positive. Symmetry, negative (probably); respect for designer's original intent, negative; more options, positive; etc. No assessment should just consider one aspect but many aspects. How they're combined, what their relative values are, these kinds of things affect the final answer. Based on what I've seen here, I would consider the change you effected a negative one. I don't travel the path, so I don't consider the efficiency so much. Why not jaywalk instead of traveling all the way to the crosswalk? I dunno, maybe you do. I know I do too, sometimes.

Though it isn't in an urban context, staying on the established trails is important in the wilderness too. Cutting switchbacks, while shortening the overall path, has a strong negative effect especially with respect to erosion. Sometimes a longer path can be negative too as when hikers walk around a muddy patch on the trail, trampling the vegetation on the sides of the muddy patch, ultimately enlarging it. More mud, more trail than is necessary, these are not improvements. Sometimes sticking to the path is the best choice.

[glatt]

I can't argue with you. Jaywalking isn't an option because traffic is too heavy to do it without inconveniencing cars that have the right of way.

[Spexxvet]

There are leaders and there are followers. Glatt = leader.

[TheMercenary]

When I was a kid they built a new High School. They never put in sidewalks for the first year. At the end of the year they put the sidewalks where the kids had completely worn down the grass. Pretty cool idea. Wish I had pics.