Some places, like college campuses, will avoid putting any paths in at all in the beginning, wait a few weeks, and then pave based off where people are already going.
There's a story that urban engineers in... Sweden(?) look at the ground after fresh snow to judge where to install walking pavement
Not always, the gradient might not be good for wheelchairs, and could cost more to level when there is a full budget.
Granted this does not appear to be the case here. Desire paths will always exist, though, as the ingenuity of a subset of the many will always outweigh the few.
This indicates bad design.
Some places, like college campuses, will avoid putting any paths in at all in the beginning, wait a few weeks, and then pave based off where people are already going.
There's a story that urban engineers in... Sweden(?) look at the ground after fresh snow to judge where to install walking pavement
Not always, the gradient might not be good for wheelchairs, and could cost more to level when there is a full budget.
Granted this does not appear to be the case here. Desire paths will always exist, though, as the ingenuity of a subset of the many will always outweigh the few.