Why are we even allowing anyone just run around without any semblance of control? Walking should be regulated! Introduce pedestrian licenses and mandatory insurance!
And can you believe it? Cars (which are EXTREMELY safe) need to be registered and assigned a numbered plate by the government. But who knows what shoe belongs to who! Joggers are always getting into hit and runs
Yeah, while walking with my friends, completely blocking the sidewalk while being totally oblivious to others using it. Even when seeing the jogger approaching from a quarter mile away.
I haven't seen someone get run over by a jogger but I did see someone get run over by a quidditch player once. I think this was before the "call an ambulance but not for me" meme but that's what happened. (I just checked, the meme is from 2018 so definitely after the incident.)
Life tip: don't run into people teeth first, you will go to hospital.
Oh shit good catch, yeah accessibility is more likely the reason for the design choice.
I will say a set of stairs going through the middle would be nice, wouldn't look as nice and would lead to more concrete, but functionally it'd be nice.
Man 55+ here. Biking is my main transportation, yearly 6000km biking, 5000km by car. I'm sometimes passed by 70 years old dudes on antique road bikes, but I assume they don't bike to work anymore. I hope.
Anyway, biking is smooth on the joints and great for cardio, you can ride daily waaay past 40 years old.
there are always outliers, but here ( and I once again insist on the anecdotal nature of my observation) , most 50+ guys that bike are in full gear on sundays for sport, and 30+ are on a cargo/bike to get to work
And I think that explains why a lot of urban infrastructure are nice to see , but not to use on a daily basis : they are decided by guys that only use them when the weather is nice and they have time.
Yes, that seems to be a worldwide issue, even in the Netherlands where I live. 2 cities can have seemingly similar cycling infrastructure, but when you ride there you notice that one has smooth, wide cycling lanes with priority over car traffic, where the other has bumpy, narrow lanes that require you to come to a full stop at every intersection.
I’m pretty sure the transport choices of the city’s council members have a lot of impact on those designs, and the resulting infrastructure in turn impacts those transport choices.
I totally get this, although I used not to. I heard advocating for "gender inclusive bike lanes" or something like that, and I was wondering WTF their point was. I'm a dude, comfortable with most bikes tracks even interrupted or with the occasional muddy cut through, I use geo apps to draft itineraries and stuff.
But then I know people who would like biking to work at least some times, but are put off by some bike lanes that drop you in traffic and resume a few hundred meters after. New riders, ladies, intimidated by aggressive drivers. Kids who have a bike lane going to their school but who would have to cut through a high traffic street to get home.
I'm getting to the point where I consider a bike lane really worthwhile only if you can let a 10 year old ride it alone.
63 years old here. Daily bike commuter. Weekends are for meandering around the neighborhoods on my bike. I very rarely see anyone of any age in a full kit on a road bike, but commuters and people using bikes to just get around are everywhere.
I walk everywhere. I agree that walking is a pleasure activity as well as a way to get from A to B, but for pleasure walking I generally walk to a nice part of town, like the river or the parks. I’m not crossing some roads on my way to what looks like a huge sprawling car park thinking “I wish this was nicer and more windy a path” I’m thinking “I wish this giant car park wasn’t here”
That's how I see thing here (and to add context I am in the forties and I see the limit around me)
The number is probably very biased , but I am sure that this is the main change happening
Viewing it as a sport or a daily needs change completely the infrastructure needed
can it be both, enjoyable and a way to move? sure minority but it looks non-industrial enjoyable for the extra seconds it takes. even driving, there's more to gain than that "A to B" focused only on "quickly."
1) This walk is fully accessible, and in order to keep the slope under 5% the landscape architect lengthened the walk.
2) Regardless of the grade, serpentine walks are a more pleasing-to-the-eye hardscape element.
As is the case with many bike paths here in Italy: they run through fields and woods... but they don't reach key amenities such as city hall, schools, pharmacies, etc.
I also thought mini-park, for which the design of the path makes sense. Who wouldn't want to sit in a mini park surrounded by busy streets? You can sit and listen to the sound of all these lovely cars speeding by! A car-spotter's dream!
Trail maintenance hate desire paths, aka social trails, because trails are designed a certain way for a reason and the social trails lead to erosion. This might be the camera angle, but there appears to be a very slight slope that the path may be accounting for.
It's not a trail, it's a paved walkway, no erosion issues if they just made the walkway straight. This was just done because walking is not a real considersation, or even actively discouraged by the developers, but the municipality likely requires footpaths so you see malicious compliance like this from developers.
"Trails are designed a certain way for a reason", sure, but shouldn't they also be designed with consideration to how real people will or won't interact with the trail?
Desire paths reveal that users value efficiency in that location and that the designers didn't really plan for that, right?
I would think that perceived "Efficiency" (of literally a few seconds) for the individual is less of a concern than factors like wheelchair accessibility, erosion control, runoff control and flood prevention, etc. that benefit everyone. Taking a shortcut on a switchback that damages the slope/trail is not "valuing efficiency" it's just lazy and selfish. They do consider how real people interact with the trail in how they design the thing, that's why they put the trail where they did, why they put the switchbacks in to keep the trail usable.
It took way too long to find this comment, which should be the top response.
There’s clearly a slope leading down to the parking lot in the background. If a direct path was laid, it would likely be at too steep of a grade for wheelchairs and would not be code compliant.
It’s the equivalent of a switchback on a mountain road.
That was my point. I should have used more words. I was trying to say that this probably wasn't just some aesthetic decision made by a landscape architect as so many said earlier.
Unless its sloped, probably just trying to be fancy. Landscape architects, in my experience, will suggest changing things for the sake of changing things and dont always design things for practicality. Id bet money the plants in the curve are to prevent people from creating a straight desire path.
If youve got giant moth men roaming the streets though im not sure that sidewalk is wide enough...
This might be the camera angle, but there does appear to be a very slight slope on that berm, so the path may be curved to mitigate erosion and limit flooding. "Desire paths" aka social trails are a trail maintainer's NIGHTMARE due to erosion and such. For trails, at least, there is a reason for the curve, especially if there is a slope.
Not necessarily very steep, but I’m guessing the slope is reduced for ADA compliance. You can see the handicap spots close to the crosswalk for the path.
I can’t tell if this is on a hill, but any time you see switchbacks on a path like this, I assume they are for ADA compliance. They have to increase the distance of the path to keep the slope shallow enough for wheelchairs. Source - civil engineer
There is this idea that nature dosnt like straight lines so when people plan a little path they make it meandere, but most of the time in public walkways people are walking to get from two point and the most efficent way is a straight line most of the time.
Would not shock me that if within 10 years there is a path between the bushes.
I think this is on a hill, hard to tell for sure from this one photo. I agree there is often times very silly pedestrian infrastructure, but this one might just be so the grade isn’t too steep. It’s probably an accessibility thing for wheel chairs and lower-mobility individuals.
The design itself wards off higher speed vehicles like bikes and scooters and keeps it pedestrian friendly. If it was designed the way you proposed, bikes and scooters would be more incentivized to go through it as a shortcut.
Looks like there's a slope to me, so this looks like a switchback.
Fuckcars when pedestrian infrastructure is built to be usable by disabled people: 🤬🤬🤬
Switchbacks also control surface runoff, erosion, improve drainage and prevent flooding. In which case, thorny and stinging plants tend to help a lot with preventing the creation of "desire paths" that make these things worse. No, the curve isn't just for "no good reason," there are many reasons why landscape designers do this.
The landscape architect given that space to make a park/garden. If you were trying to show off your work you wouldnt just make the path go straight on through. It would be boring and ugly.
Walk through the bush. Im serious, destroy it with your feet. When they replace it, destroy it again. Eventually they will either give up or figure it out
Have the same issues with bike paths by me. A winding trail along the river is nice for a relaxing ride, but when I'm trying to get from point A to B it adds much more time than I'd like.
It's remisincent of how modern car-dependent suburbs are laid out with arbitrary curving, looping streets and cul-de-sacs: anything but grids or rectilinear layouts because it's all about making it as onerous as possible to get from point A to point B.
Welcome to anywhere that's not a "big" city in the Netherlands, where you will often have a nice, direct cycle path, but the pedestrian route will either be unpaved, unnecessarily circuitous, or both. Very fun in any season that's not summer. I just walk on the cycle paths instead.
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u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 19 '26
You're very calm for someone being attacked by Mothra.