It depends. Some people view lawns that aren’t devoid of all insect life messy or trimmed evenly messy. And if it is raining or has recently rained, hardly anyone would use a muddy path so the concrete sidewalk will remain reasonably clean as well.
wheelchair-accessible
That’s important, though I’m not advocating for keeping an entire campus unpaved. I am arguing that only necessary pathways should be paved while desire paths should ideally remain unpaved. People in wheelchairs should still get around (quickly), but desire paths don’t need to be wheelchair accessible in my opinion.
Yes, based on college conversations with groundskeepers, students tend to blaze their own trails to create the shortest routes. Besides injuries when they slip and fall in the mud, it also gets tracked into buildings, making those floors slippery as well. Paving popular paths is a way of accommodating human behavior.
I don’t think there’s an issue with desire paths becoming unusable during certain times though. It slightly extends the time you spend walking around but I’d prefer this over having unnecessary pavement.
You might as well pave the entire green space in this example.
Mud is messy; muddy trails also aren’t the most wheelchair-friendly
It depends. Some people view lawns that aren’t devoid of all insect life messy or trimmed evenly messy. And if it is raining or has recently rained, hardly anyone would use a muddy path so the concrete sidewalk will remain reasonably clean as well.
That’s important, though I’m not advocating for keeping an entire campus unpaved. I am arguing that only necessary pathways should be paved while desire paths should ideally remain unpaved. People in wheelchairs should still get around (quickly), but desire paths don’t need to be wheelchair accessible in my opinion.
A dirt path, fine and great. Sounds nice for summertime.
Lot of schools aren’t in a warm climate.
Those paths become unusable in winter, a muddy (unusable) slop when it rains or when the snow melts.
Muddy paths lead to wet socks and dirty shoes at best, and at worst, you slip and get covered.
Yes, based on college conversations with groundskeepers, students tend to blaze their own trails to create the shortest routes. Besides injuries when they slip and fall in the mud, it also gets tracked into buildings, making those floors slippery as well. Paving popular paths is a way of accommodating human behavior.
I don’t think there’s an issue with desire paths becoming unusable during certain times though. It slightly extends the time you spend walking around but I’d prefer this over having unnecessary pavement.
You might as well pave the entire green space in this example.
And why would paving the entire green space not be worse than only paving the paths people walk on?
You’re insufferable.