Desire path for straight sidewalk
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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Desire Paths
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Desire paths Desire paths can be paths created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall or traffic. The paths usually represent the shortest or most easily navigated routes between origins and destinations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path
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I'll never understand why city planners do that. Like, it's clear you could have definitely had a little bit narrower sidewalk going straight through, but instead they just went around it.
If it's worried about spacing, they could just make it on both sides like a smaller path to the left of the pole and then the normal path curving around for like wheelchair access.
The width is for safe travel by people in wheelchairs. I've been in situations where a mere inch too narrow meant we had to go back to wherever we could cross, or drive/walk in the road, or even give up on that street entirely. Could you possibly fit the pavers if you took it all the way to the edge? Would it be safe for that stretch of roadway? The people who laid the sidewalk presumably measured and decided not. Now, could they have paved the straight AND the curve? Probably yes, but at greater expense. And we'd miss out on this nice desire path.
Has to be 4-6’ for accessibility, and if there’s plowimg in the winter the sidewalk plow has to fit.
What I don't get is why the pole had to go right there. Why not put the sidewalk where you want it and then put the pole to the side? The fire hydrant seems to be doing just fine where it is.
bet you $10 the pole was there first. The cost of working with the cable company and paying their approved expensive team to remove it and moving it vs just taking your existing city contracted cement team and doing a little squiggly
money is always the motive
I'll throw in another $10 that the sidewalk was somewhere else initially.
I'm betting the road was narrower, and the sidewalk further to the left (in the photo). The pole was to the right of the sidewalk. These were all planned/built around the same time.
Then the road was widened. The sidewalk had to be pushed (moved/rebuilt) further to the right. They could've put it far enough over to be completely on the other side of the pole, but that would have other implications - including running into the fire hydrant in the background.
man I'm so glad we don't have to deal with that here. All poles are owned by the town here, if they wanna move a pole they give notice to the utility companies "hey this is being moved on X date, if you wanna keep services on it we recommend you be there" (coordination wise, we still have many regulations to follow)
In some places it'll be the phone company and the power company and the cable TV/internet companies as well. You'd have to coordinate with all 3. And there may be regulations about how close it has to be to the street to enable repairs -- regulations put there for the safety of the workers, as well as to keep the lines away from tree branches that might take them down during a storm.
Accessibility
The sidewalk, light pole, curb, etc. were all probably built at different times and designed by different engineers with different values and priorities
Probably some idiotic law the designer had to follow
They care more about it looking visually pleasing than being actually usable.