My university used to pave these paths any time they did new construction. They’d put in the normal walkway when a new building went up, wait till the next year and then pave the places where people naturally wanted walkways.

This is a "desire path"! /r/desirepaths was one of my favourites. Don't think it's on Lemmy yet

The best part of this picture is it's clearly used like a road with heavy traffic going both directions, as there's a little ridge of grass still growing in the middle.